I have read approximately one third of the novel. I picked up this book, because I was looking just for a good read. And that’s what it has been for me so far. I enjoy reading it on the train, tram, bus or at home.
The Kite runner is about a boy, Amir, who lives in Kabul, Afghanistan in the 70s. Afghanistan was different then, since it was before all the terrors started. Amir has an age similar servant, Hassan, who is also his best friend. Because of their differences statuses, they have an interesting relationship. Amir lives in a mansion, while Hassan lives in a small hut outside. Amir goes to school, while Hassan spends the day cleaning the house. But once Amir comes home, they unite in playing outside.
I finished reading the preface, prologue and first chapter of H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Nights: A town, a team and a Dream. What made me want to read the Book was mainly due to the fact that I am a devoted watcher of the television series, which I fell in love with from the very first episode (though ever since the first season, which is the part based on the book, it hasn’t been as captivating). I also had seen the movie, which in several aspects is more faithful to the book (e.g. characters, town). Ironically enough, on the cover they chose to put pictures of the TV series characters that differ not only by name, but also by number and personality. Another reason that made me want to read this book, is simply that it is a football book. Having read John Grisham’s Playing for Pizza, I knew that that genre was very appealing to me.
Usually when reading a book, saying one has read the preface, prologue and first chapter will not reveal that much of what the book is about. These 42 pages set the tone for what is to come later. In the preface, Bissinger tells his story of how he was inspired to write the book, how he chose Odessa, and his stay there, which was very interesting. The prologue does the job that a first chapter would usually do. It introduces you to the town and their attitude towards high school football and the main characters and their traits. It does so by taking the reader through the thrills and spills of one of the games on Friday night. The first chapter is an introduction to the town Odessa, home of the Permian Panthers. It first gives its historical background: how Odessa is an oil town, how it goes through highs and lows ― quite a depressing town. Bissinger then goes on to explain the importance of Permian High School football. In Odessa, Panther football doesn’t only bring almost the whole town together on Friday night, it keeps it alive.
In the middle if the 20th century, a new emphasis on mental illness arose.
Before then, psychiatric treatment was not that much regarded, yet it still
existed. Nevertheless, in the mid 1900s the field grew tremendously. The
numbers of hospitalized mentally ill people in Europe and America peaked. In
England and Wales, there were 7,000 patients in 1850, 120,000 in 1930, and
nearly 150,000 in 1954 it then peaks at 560,000 in 1955. Several new institutes
arose, and so did new treatment methods. In the United States, the number In
the U.S. passage of the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental
Health Centers Construction Act provided the first federal money for developing
a network of community-based mental health services. Advocates for
deinstitutionalization believed that people with mental illness would
voluntarily seek out treatment at these facilities if they need it, although in
practice this will not always be the case.
A new type of therapy, called behavior therapy, is developed, which holds
that people with phobias can be trained to overcome them. However the worst new
treatments were Electroconvulsive therapy (ECD), and lobotomies. ECD was the
giving of electric seizures for therapeutic purposes. But Lobotomies were even
worse: a Lobotomy a surgical procedure in which some connections of the brain
are cut. These new methods were very radical (not to mention inefficient) and
hence extremely controversial. Many argued that these institutions led to no
results, that it even may cause further damage the patients.
Now the psychiatric world has changed. Most of the radical
treatments have stopped being used by the majority of the asylums. Now, a new
generation of anti-psychotic drugs has been introduced. These drugs prove to be
more effective in treating schizophrenia and have fewer side effects. Yet a
survey of American jails reports that 7.2 percent of inmates are overtly and
seriously mentally ill, meaning that 100,000 seriously mentally ill people have
been incarcerated. Over a quarter of them are held without charges, often
awaiting a bed in a psychiatric hospital. In conclusion, the methods for
treating mental illness have evolved from the experimental times of the mid
1900s, yet the demand for treatment has remained the same.
