The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini, 2003)

[madali]

The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini, 2003)

For me, “The Kite Runner” was the kind of book that I picked up, read, and finished it very fast, because I could not put it down. The book is a fictional story about rich boy, Amir, in the 60’s Afghanistan, and we follow him as he grows up, with Afghanistan’s many political changes as the background, and his friendship with servant boy, Hassan, and his relationship with his father being the focus of the book. Many things happen and time moves fast, and that is why it is so easy to read. The author does not waste too much time on anything specific. This is not the sort of book that spends three pages describing a lake.

The book works extremely well when it is about Amir’s relationship with his father, who is completely different from him, and his servant friend, Hassan, who he never really treats as an equal. Amir is a smart, soft, well-spoken, young child with the talent of writing stories, but he also seems to be a coward. His father constantly puts him down for not standing up for himself and against others, and initially we think that the father is wrong. Not every guy can be a tough guy or a big hunter, some guys would rather write stories, and through my own preference and current perceptions, we instantly assume this is okay. Why not?

But the old ways are generally more right than we think. As per Amir’s father, a man who can’t stand up for himself, can’t stand up to anything. And we read how Amir’s affect the lives of people around him.

A moving book, but be careful you don’t take as a gospel on Afghan’s political situation. He writes in a very biased manner, and I can see in him many of the biases that American-Iranians have, where it is easy for western readers to go, “Aww, before Afghanis.” A quick look at wikipedia, shows that the author was in Kabul for only a few years. And even that he was the son of a politician. So, forget the political undertones in the book, he makes Afghanistan Taliban era like some kind of Mad Max world, where people are hanging on the streets, and everyone is either a gang member or a beggar.

4/5

[shariqq]

I myself just finished this book three days ago, just in time to miss the theatrical run of the movie based on the book. I didn't rush through it though - took my time (almost two weeks). Khaled Hosseini's writing style is so unassuming and "unprocessed" that his first-person writing got me checking wikipedia if it was his own story!

Extremely engaging, very well drawn out characters, and such wonderfully written moments that it easily becomes one of my favorite non-fantasy fiction books.

[madali]

I got confused too, I thought it was based on his life, at least the childhood scenes.

[shariqq]

That's how well-written it is. Feels so real!

[fizz]

Fantastic book I agree and very well written. The prose was what captured my attention at first (and really, without good writing a story is just a story). But as it went on, it was able to encapsulate with great ease such timeless themes as friendship, betrayal and a heartfelt salvation. I have to disagree with Mad about the political undertones of the book - faulting Hosseini as being an outsider because he visited Afghanistan very briefly to write the book is not really right. He did live there a decade or so as a kid and a lot of what he remembers is the basis of this story. I've always said this, the book (and its film version) are strongest at the start because that is where they feel the most real.

[madali]

The Taliban parts were crap! The world was a Mad Max world, with the Talibans being extremely cruel, and everyone hated them.

[X.]

Wikipedia is a great resource for information, but it is not acceptable to read a few pages on a subject and consider oneself to be an authority on the topic. I don't intend to demean Mad (as much as I personally enjoy the process; it's, sadly, not the case this time!), but let's give Hosseini the benefit of the doubt because his roots belong to Afghanistan and that makes him -- over Mad -- the most qualified person to comment on the Taliban era. The fact that he was born into a political family changes nothing; everyone has the right to their opinion, and Hosseini's perspective on his country of origin is tenable.

The Taliban parts were crap! The world was a Mad Max world, with the Talibans being extremely cruel, and everyone hated them.

May be they were, may be there weren't. I humbly ask, how would you know?