Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Contemporary Fiction
Page Count: N/A
Rating: 4.8 out of 5
Cover Rating: 4.7 out of 5. I like it--it looks like Afghanistan, and it has a nice nostalgic feel to it. Plus I like the cover scheme.
Inside flap:
Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is an unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.
The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons--their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But with the devastation, Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: though the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows for redemption.
My expectations: Since this book has been on Banned Books lists, I expected there to be at least some graphic violence/language/etc. (I was prepared to stop reading it if it got too bad.)
There was little that could be called really explicit, and my expectations were very much exceeded.
About the book: The Kite Runner is a beautiful story. It was well-paced, well-written, and realistic. Khaled Hosseini's writing is amazing, and that in itself hikes my opinion of the book greatly. The description is wonderful, and the way things are presented is believable, unlike a lot of literature these days. I felt for the characters, understood their feelings, and nothing felt forced or artificial. The events, people, and the world of Afghanistan--and, later, America--were real and just there in a way that takes excellent writing to accomplish.
Excellent. There were twists and turns to it that sent the story forward, but without rushing anything. There's a big secret that comes out later in the book, which was surprising and a little shocking, and I loved that aspect. The ending was great, too; I won't say anything for fear of giving it away, but it made me a little sniffly. I felt like hugging the book afterwards (which, believe me, is something I do only for books I've really enjoyed).
Amir was mixed character; a complex one, more diverse, a person that you really can't pass judgement on without knowing the entire story and the circumstances--those are the best kinds of characters. I was fond of him, frustrated at his actions, and enjoyed reading about someone who wasn't a stereotype, cliche, or an otherwise-repetitive character.
Hassan, a Hazara, is Amir's family's servant. Hazaras are considered lower-class than the higher-ups such as Amir's family's ethnicity, which is Tajik. He's loyal to Amir's family--sometimes I felt like shouting at him to stand up for himself, against what was happening to him, but it was understandable; he would only have been punished, mocked, etc. I loved him as a character.
Amira's father, Baba, wasn't quite a stereotype, although some of the things he did could fall into that category. I wouldn't call him a cliche though, since he still had depth and importance. I didn't like him, but the interplay between him, Amir, Hassan, Hassan's father Ali, and the people he met in America was interesting to read.
There are practically no books set in Afghanistan, at least in the USA (I'm sure there are books on it in other countries--like, well, Afghanistan), so it was fascinating to read it just for that fact. It was another perspective into the lives of regular Afghans, the social structure, and it was a look at Kabul before the wars began, before the Soviets, and before the USA stuck its big head in. The world was depicted well, in the writing; I could see the city clearly in my mind.
Other: There is rape, but it's not nearly as graphic as some people seem to be making it out to be. It mentions blood, (after the rape) but it doesn't go into the details--the other character is running away from the scene as it happens, and there is no head-hopping into the victim, or the ones committing the crime. There are references and some language, and a scene ends as two characters are about to have sex (there is no description during that part, though). Some violence; mentions of war, physical attacks, attempted suicide.
I want to see the movie! Hopefully they didn't butcher it, like they do with some really good books; it would be interesting to see how they incorporated the Afghanistan part of it. There certainly aren't many movies out there that involve Afghanistan.
Do I recommend this book? Yes. Absolutely.
-----The Golden Eagle
