The Kite Runner

published	November 6th 2006 by Bloomsbury
first published	2003
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0747588945 (isbn13: 9780747588948)
pages	336
description	The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly wh...more [close] The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys. Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling. The son of an Afghan diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, Hosseini combines the unflinching realism of a war correspondent with the satisfying emotional pull of master storytellers such as Rohinton Mistry. Like the kite that is its central image, the story line of this mesmerizing first novel occasionally dips and seems almost to dive to the ground. But Hosseini ultimately keeps everything airborne until his heartrending conclusion in an American picnic park. --Lisa Alward, Amazon.ca [close]
date added	09-08-06 edit book

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Jackie rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

05/15/08

bookshelves: just-read

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Jackie by: Masses of "Simple People"
recommends it for: "Simple People"

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I must admit that although I had heard plenty of people mention The Kite Runner, I hadn’t actually paid much attention to what was said about it other than, “It was wonderful!”

So, a few days ago and several years after the book came out, I heard a couple of people discussing the “wonderful” book I decided to read it.

The first day, I read about a third of the novel (Hassan is raped, Amir feels bad, well sort of, he feels bad that Hassan is raped yes, but even worse beca...more I must admit that although I had heard plenty of people mention The Kite Runner, I hadn’t actually paid much attention to what was said about it other than, “It was wonderful!”

So, a few days ago and several years after the book came out, I heard a couple of people discussing the “wonderful” book I decided to read it.

The first day, I read about a third of the novel (Hassan is raped, Amir feels bad, well sort of, he feels bad that Hassan is raped yes, but even worse because Hassan’s rape makes him feel bad and, of course, this means he needs to act badly and do bad things, and make more bad stuff happen to Hassan who is not bad at all.) And, I will admit that this portion of the book had me reading as quickly as I could. I flipped from one page to the next, skimmed over the plethora of annoyances, oops, I mean I skimmed over the Farsi vocab sprinkled evenly throughout to, of course, add authenticity and give it that multicultural feel that is sure to make every publisher drool over a manuscript, and I was even forgiving of the somewhat poor writing. Yes, on day one, I liked The Kite Runner. I was into The Kite Runner. And when I decided to continue my read the next day – I had high hopes!

The second day, I read to the point where Amir gets a phone call from a man he has not seen in years, abandons his “perfect life” in America (well, almost perfect, there is the infertility and the gap that his wife’s uterus is forming between them, but their sex life is still good – sometimes… WHAT!? Never mind…) so, anyway, Amir hops on a plane to Afghanistan which is being ruled by the Taliban, yet he enters without issue, and follows the yellow brick road and lands at OZ where it turns out that the man behind the glasses is not John Lennon at all – he is Assef – his childhood nemesis, pedophile, and just plain evil guy (and you know he is evil cause he likes Hitler – although he has never heard of ethic cleansing). So, Amir walks right into the Taliban compound and asks to see the wizard, I mean their leader, and is allowed to do so (actually it was more difficult for Dorothy to get in to see the wizard, she should have taken Amir with her) and when he gets in, we find out that Hassan’s son is made to dress like a monkey - GET IT A MONKEY – ya know like the monkey that Amir and Hassan would go see (too bad it wasn’t a flying monkey) – and provide entertainment for the Taliban, and provide sexual services for Assef – the same guy that had sex with Hassan and, now the obviously simple minded reader that Hosseini wrote for, says, “that is so weird the way that all happened, wow, I cant believe the way this is all coming together, this is sooooooo fascinating!” Oh, and for the thinking reader with any literary competence who MAY think that this is too much of a coincidence, don’t be so critical; this issue was already addressed when Amir ran into a beggar that happened to have taught with (and remembered doing so) Amir’s mother. We, the readers, are clearly TOLD that coincidence is VERY common in Afghanistan. Therefore, if the rest of the story seems too contrived, don’t worry, it is realistic for Afghanistan. So, don’t question it, cause he is the expert on Afghanistan and you (the reader) are not, therefore, just accept that this completely ridiculous, unrealistic, obviously contrived series of events, are very realistic in Afghanistan!

My third day of reading, I completed the book and instead of placing my hand over my heart, smiling, and thinking about how wonderful the book was, how beautiful the story was, and how it all came so nicely together in the end (apparently the reaction of the masses), I was mad. I was mad because there are so many people out there who think a book this ridiculous and obvious is brilliant. I was mad because this is precisely what is wrong with some multicultural literature and what gives multicultural literature a bad name. There are many pieces out there which are actually beautifully written, provide valuable insight into other cultures, and entertain the reader (i.e. Reading Lolita in Tehran), however, it does nothing for multicultural literature to publish pieces that are poorly written and filled with cliché. I can forgive (to a certain extent) poorer writing when the story is written as a true account and when the purpose of the novel to re-tell actual events. However, when an author decides he is going to write a piece of fiction, his style, diction, and storyline come into question. The final portion of the novel continues throwing out one cliché after another, and throws out one ridiculous coincidence after another. Just the fact that a good portion of the middle of the book was dedicated to pounding it into the readers head that Amir and Soraya could not have children and did not want to adopt, well, that is unless the bloodline is known, is enough to clue the reader in that they will adopt Sohrab waaaay before Amir even knows that he will adopt Sohrab. What a coincidence that Hassan just happened to be his half brother, happened to have a son, and the son happened to have been taken by Assef. And it was even more convenient that even from the grave, once again, Hassan could save Amir. He could provide him with a son and the opportunity to finally fight the big bully who STILL carried his brass knuckles. And more convenient yet, the fact that Sohrab always carried that slingshot (And in case we forgot that he always carried it, Amir remembered for us, as if Hosseini wants to say: see readers how clever I am, I set it up that Sohrab always had the slingshot, and now later in the story, it comes back out. See how clever I am readers, everything in my story has a purpose and is connected). However, what Hosseini needed to do is explain how a kid who has been taken from an orphanage, made to dress and entertain like a monkey, lives with the Taliban, and is a sex slave for the Big Bad Assef, still managed to keep his slingshot – the very weapon used against Assef in the past, and the very weapon that Assef has an issue with! Just how dumb must a reader be to believe that the freakin Taliban NEVER NOTICED!? So, okay, Sohrab saves Amir, they escape and the Taliban does nothing, and then another freaking coincidence – Amir will end up with a scar. And in case the reader does not deduce that Amir will have a scar from his busted lip, the doctor points it out and confirms it. Yes, reader, a scar like Hassan’s – get it? It’s connected – get it?

Truth be told, there are so many unbelievable incidents and ridiculous coincidences presented to us in this book that it would take pages to go through them all because they were present from beginning to end: The young Russian soldier who doesn’t shoot Baba and the older Russian soldier who apologizes for him and talks about the young soldiers – YEAH RIGHT! The fact that Amir is an author who is published right away and cranks out novel after novel with great success – YEAH RIGHT! Baba dies of lung cancer and then Rahim Khan seems to have to same issue – does Hosseini think all people who die of natural causes die of lung issues? Raymond Andrews who has a bad attitude because his kid committed suicide, and then the receptionist actually tells Amir that this happened – the way this came out seemed completely fake and contrived because – IT WOULDN’T HAPPEN! Then, of course, Sohrab tries to kill himself, so now we know why Andrews kid had to commit suicide – we needed one more obvious instance of foreshadowing. It is also a little odd how often Amir throws out how he knows about medicine because he is a writer – WHAT? I didn’t know I needed to seek out an author when I was sick. And so on and so on…

But one final point that I would like to make is that as soon as Amir picked up a kite it seemed that, much like Jesus, his hands began to bleed; therefore, I am left to wonder: why didn’t Amir know about the invent of gloves? Perhaps that is the biggest tragedy of it all.

By the way, I am still giving the novel two stars because there is an interesting story in there, and the glimpse into Afghanistan is valuable. It is just that the author did such a poor job of presenting the story that it actually detracts from the positive aspects of the book and makes the validity of his glimpse into Afghanistan quite questionable. Therefore, my two stars are for the possibilities that could have been if it had been written by a talented author.
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Linda rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

02/20/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Can't really recommend it, I'm sorry.

Finished this book about a month ago but it's taken me this long to write a review about it because I have such mixed feelings about it. It was a deeply affecting novel, but mostly not in a good way. I really wanted to like it, but the more I think about what I didn't like about the book, the more it bothers me. I even downgraded this review from two stars to one from the time I started writing it to the time I finished.

Let's start off with the good, shall we? The writing itself was pretty ...more

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Matt rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

01/18/08

recommends it for: people who slurp up 'chicken soup for the soul' books

i really wanted to like this novel. judging from its thousands of 'five-star reviews' hailing it as the one of the 'best books ever written,' i'm in the minority when i state that this novel, while well-intentioned, just left a little bit of sour taste in my mouth.

my problems with the novel are as follows: first of all the writing itself is so ham-fistened, heavy-handed, distracting and otherwise puzzling that by the midway point, i seriously considered chucking the book against the wall. e...more i really wanted to like this novel. judging from its thousands of 'five-star reviews' hailing it as the one of the 'best books ever written,' i'm in the minority when i state that this novel, while well-intentioned, just left a little bit of sour taste in my mouth.

my problems with the novel are as follows: first of all the writing itself is so ham-fistened, heavy-handed, distracting and otherwise puzzling that by the midway point, i seriously considered chucking the book against the wall. each page of the novel has at least 5-10 incomplete sentences. i'm all for experimental and fractered prose--but it's important for authors to use it judiciously. hosseini, unfortunately, beats it to death. a lot of his language is cliched, too, which is funny considering there's a passage in the book about a writing teacher who warns the narrator, amir, about using cliches. i don't know if that was supposed to be funny or not, but it made me laugh (and what was worse was the san francisco's chronicle's glowing review on the book's cover and the san francisco chronicle's glowing review of amir's novel--coincidence?).

the author's use of farsi--especially in the dialogue--was equally distracting. my point is that no one speaks the way his characters speak. people don't switch back and forth between languages while speaking, and if they do, they certainly don't speak 1/2 the sentence in english, say one word in farsi, then traslate the farsi word to english, then finish the sentence in english, when they're presumably speaking farsi to begin with. i didn't pick up this book for a crash course in colloquial farsi. after 370 pages, i was frustrated--and annoyed.

hosseini's plot often borders on the ridiculous. the'twists' are just TOO coincidental--and not surprising at all (except in how contrived they are). for example, in a devasted kabul, amir sees a homeless man in the street. the homeless man, of course, was a former university professor who just happened to teach with amir's long deceased mother. what a coincidence! what makes it worse, is that the narrator, amir then explains that while that may, in fact, seem like a coincidence, it happens in afghanistan happens all the time. of course it does. in another example, amir's former nemesis, assaf (now a taliban crony), beats up amir and amir ends up with a scar above his lip, just like his dear friend hassan, who was born with cleft-pallet. oh, the coincidence! (and the fact that amir even runs into assef again is ridiculous). another example: amir and his wife aren't able to have children, and of course they find an orphan boy who happens to be extended family and they adopt him. what a coincidence! and after amir returns to afghanistan he doesn't call home to his dutiful wife for over a month. i kept wondering 'when's he gonna call home?' and any plot advanced by a series of 'tragedies,' (and in this book they are legion) shows little more than the writer's inability to craft a meaningful and interesting plot. not only is it pretty poor form, it's also highly manipulative and condescending. i found myself continually frustrated by hosseini's apparent distrust of the reader. we don't have to be told how and when to interpret metaphors. and if i read one more book where the protagonist is a writer or professor, i'm gonna ram my head into a metal post.

i don't want to sound like a misanthrope or jaded literature reader because i'm certainly not. this novel just left me wanting so much more in terms of plot and characterization. having said that, however, the novel could be important in that shows the cruelty of the taliban. much of what hosseini writes about is important, especially for us westerners unfamiliar with the breadth and scope of the afghani tragedy.

in the end, it was worth the $2.00 i paid for it....less

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Dale rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

06/18/08

Read in June, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Let me say up front that I expected to like this book more than I actually did.

Obviously, the hype probably had a lot to do with it. The book had buzz as soon as it was published, the movie was supposed to be a bold and brave piece of art for committing to film the things the book said, etc. I never got around to tracking the book down myself, but then my father-in-law put it in my hands in a pile of books when I asked to borrow a few for the commute ('cause man, buying new books all the t...more Let me say up front that I expected to like this book more than I actually did.

Obviously, the hype probably had a lot to do with it. The book had buzz as soon as it was published, the movie was supposed to be a bold and brave piece of art for committing to film the things the book said, etc. I never got around to tracking the book down myself, but then my father-in-law put it in my hands in a pile of books when I asked to borrow a few for the commute ('cause man, buying new books all the time gets expensive). So, a few years after the buzz and the hype, here we are.

Hosseini makes an interesting storytelling choice right off the bat. He writes a memoir-style novel in which the first-person narrator is deeply, deeply flawed, almost to the point of being unlikable. He is a spoiled brat who possesses a slightly disturbing capability for casual sadism directed at his closest playmate, a family servant, his "best friend". It's a fairly believable portrait of a child, and it's complex, with some counterbalancing good qualities, but because much of the plot of the novel hangs on one pivotal moment of moral failure - the narrator watches his "best friend" being sodomized by bullies and does nothing to help - it's hard to forget what a nasty kid the narrator once was, even as he grows up, because he constantly remembers that crucial, ugly moment of cowardice and betrayal.

But, oddly, the narrator is supposed to be a protagonist. The audience is supposed to root for him and for his ultimate redemption. Personally I just wanted to see him get his comeuppance, but that's not the story Hosseini set out to tell. The narrator escapes from Afghanistan in the days of the mujahadeen, makes it to America, reinvents himself, falls in love, gets married and watches his father die. Sympathetic stuff, but a big shift from the painful, brutally honest appraisal of an entitled little snot in the earlier chapters.

Then the plot starts veering into territory so soap opera-y/comic book-y that it bordered on camp. The narrator and his wife suffer the heartbreak of not being able to conceive a child. Then the narrator receives a call from an old family friend from Afghanistan, now living in Pakistan. The narrator goes back to the Middle East, and the revelations start flying. His childhood "best friend" was actually his bastard half-brother! But he was killed by the Taliban! But he had a son, the narrator's nephew, who went to an orphanage! But the child was abducted from the orphanage by the Taliban!

I will pause here and say that I actually thought the Taliban, as a concept and as an ugly sliver of reality, was handled fairly well by Hosseini. The Taliban's brand of thuggish theocracy is simultaneously horrifying and absurd - they slaughter ethic minorities, and they also pistolwhip people who cheer too loudly at soccer matches because it's improper. I felt that the essence of that particular kind of evil was very well captured. However - the melodramatic way in which the narrator's life was made to intersect with the Taliban's was tough to swallow.

At one point in trying to track down his nephew, the narrator encounters an old street beggar who Just So Happens to have known the narrator's mother (who died in childbirth) and this Just So Happens to come up in conversation. The narrator actually hangs a lampshade on this, saying something to the effect of "I know this must seem like an incredibly improbable coincidence, but that's just the way things happen in Afghanistan, and all Afghanis know this to be true." Uh huh.

It turns out that the encounter with the beggar was just a warm up. The narrator finds that his nephew is being held and sexually abused by an elite member of the Taliban - who Just So Happens to be the same half-German, Adolf Hitler-worshipping bully who led the gang that raped the narrator's "best friend" decades ago. Wow, small world. The adult bully is a painfully two-dimensional supervillain, clearly intended to be symbolic of the Taliban but losing all pretenses of human complexity and believability along the way. And he comes close to killing both the narrator and the nephew, but they turn the tables and escape.

Then the book has to slog through the narrator's attempts to get his nephew out of the Middle East, which apparently is legally complicated. Of course he wants to adopt the child, solving his childlessness and his guilt in one swoop, but there are barriers, and when he indicates to his nephew that things might not be as easy as he originally promised, the nephew (who is maybe ten years old), tries to commit suicide and nearly succeeds. After that, the child seems irreparably emotionally broken.

But they do end up back in America, and at that point I was expecting everything to be wrapped up with a gooey Hallmark ending, because the book had become so brazenly unbelievable in most other respects. Then Hosseini did the oddest thing of all, ending things on a very ambiguous note, with the child still damaged and no clear indication that things would ever get better or that the narrator would ever feel truly redeemed.

So I was left thinking: what a very, very strange book. It's quite well-written, using the age-old trick of making the first-person narrator a professional writer himself, thus capable of working well with words. The depictions of Afghanistan - both before and, as I mentioned, under the Taliban - were enlightening. But there were far too many ludicrous plot devices for it to all hold together. It was good, but flawed - that's what three stars means to me this time around....less

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Linda rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

05/29/07

bookshelves: favorites

Read in May, 2007

So I started Kite Runner two nights ago after finishing Blink. It took me a week or so with Blink since I wasn’t very enthralled, making it easier to put it down at night when it was my bed time.

Kite Runner, I started over a long weekend and could not for the life of me put it down. I was so hooked I even found myself reading Bing’s copy when I was over at Deesh and Bing’s this weekend playing an invigorating (and might I add victorious) game of girls vs. boys Cranium and then Cheez Ge...more

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Saeed rated it:

03/19/08

خیرا نسخه صوتی کتاب بادبادک باز، اثر خالد حسینی، نویسنده افغان را تمام کردم. کتاب صوتی با صدای نویسنده کتاب و دارای کیفیت قابل قبول بود. این کتاب به نقل از نیویورک تایمز، پر فروشترین رمان امسال و سال گذشته بوده. کتاب، داستان امیر، پسر تاجر متموّل افغانی که ما او را به نام بابا م...more خیرا نسخه صوتی کتاب بادبادک باز، اثر خالد حسینی، نویسنده افغان را تمام کردم. کتاب صوتی با صدای نویسنده کتاب و دارای کیفیت قابل قبول بود. این کتاب به نقل از نیویورک تایمز، پر فروشترین رمان امسال و سال گذشته بوده. کتاب، داستان امیر، پسر تاجر متموّل افغانی که ما او را به نام بابا می‌شناسیم، خدمتکار خانواده، علی و پسرش حسن که همبازی وفادار امیر است. امیر، پشتون و حسن، هزاره است. حسن به طرز غیر قابل باوری، وفادار، باهوش و خلاصه بچه مثبت است. به عنوان مثال، حس ششمش در جایی که او جلوتر مسیر فرود بادبادک را پیش‌بینی می‌کند، قبل از همه به آنجا می‌رسد و دستانش را باز می‌کند تا بادبادک در آن فرود بیاید، کمی غیر قابل باور است. امیر، راوی داستان، برعکس پسر ضعیف النفسی است که به دلیل حسادت به محبت پدر به حسن، برای بهترین دوستش دسیسه چینی می‌کند و عاقبت نیز باعث خروج علی و پسرش حسن از خانه آنها می‌شود. احساس گناه و شرمندگی تا سالها بعد در امیر باقی می‌ماند و ادامه داستان.
عنوان اصلی افغانی کتاب «کاغذپران باز» است که در ترجمه به فارسی به «بادبادک باز» ترجمه شده است.
روال کلی داستان، به نظرم چیز تحفه‌ای نیست و بیشتر شبیه به داستان فیلمهای هندی است. فضای حاکم بر داستان، توصیف وضعیت افغانستان در دوره‌های مختلف و گوشه‌هایی از فرهنگ افغانی، نکات جالب داستان هستند. اینکه افغانی ها چطور هزاره‌های شیعه را قوم پست تلقی می‌کنند.

داستان شباهت زیادی به زندگی نویسنده دارد. خالد حسینی نیز در کودکی در افغانستان خدمتکاری داشته‌ است که به او خواندن و نوشتن یاد داده. نویسنده نیز بعد از جنگ به آمریکا مهاجرت کرده، نویسنده شده و داستانهای پرفروش نوشته است.

به عنوان خواننده فارسی زبان، استفاده از اصطلاحات و کلمات فارسی در بین داستان به زبان انگلیسی برایم جالب بود. بسیاری از کلمات و جملات در متن انگلیسی کتاب به زبان فارسی بیان می‌شوند و بعضا به انگلیسی نیز تکرار می‌شوند. گویا این داستان چندان مقبول خوانندگان افغان نیافتاده. هزاره‌ها به دلیل تلقی توهین آن را ترجمه نکرده‌اند و پشتونها نیز به دلیل بیان رفتار نامناسب با هزاره‌ها ، از آن استقبال نکرده‌اند.
نکته قابل توجه دیگر، دلیل استقبال شدید از این کتاب در آمریکا و به تبع آن در سایر نقاط جهان است. رمان علیرغم جالب بودن، به نظرم متناسب با این همه استقبال جهانی نیست. برخی او را با ارنست همینگوی مقایسه کرده‌اند. شاید دلیل موفقیت چشمگیر آن شبیه به دلایل موفقیت فیلمهای ایرانی که فقط بدبختی و بیچارگی مردم ایران را نشان می‌دهند باشد. عکسی که او با جرج بوش دارد، این فرض را تقویت می‌کند. سید رضا شکراللهی در پستی دلیل این استقبال را تقارن زمانی با حمله نظامی آمریکا به افغانستان و تشنگی مردم آمریکا به شناخت از کشوری که تا کنون نامش را نیز نشنیده بودند می‌داند.
از روی رمان، فیلمی نیز با همین نام ساخته شده است. هنرپیشگان اصلی افغانی هستند و دستمزدهای ناچیزی حدود ۱۰ هزار دلار گرفته‌اند. بعد از پخش فیلم، اعتراض هنرپیشگان فیلم به مسخره شدن توسط همکلاسیهای به دلیل وجود صحنه‌های خشونت جنسی باعث شد که تهیه کنندگان هزینه زندگی هنرپیشگان اصلی در دبی را متقبل شوند. ...less

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Chris rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

01/31/08

bookshelves: couldnt-finish

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Chris by: Everyone
recommends it for: Monkeys

I became what I am today at the age of twenty-nine, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 2008.

What I am about to tell you about what I became is going to be very shocking. It is going to manipulate your emotions. It may include some random words in my native language for no reason whatsoever. It will teach you unnecessary things about my culture. It will not be smarter than a fifth grader. And it will include as many cliches and as much foreshadowing as is humanly possible.

...more I became what I am today at the age of twenty-nine, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 2008.

What I am about to tell you about what I became is going to be very shocking. It is going to manipulate your emotions. It may include some random words in my native language for no reason whatsoever. It will teach you unnecessary things about my culture. It will not be smarter than a fifth grader. And it will include as many cliches and as much foreshadowing as is humanly possible.

You are going to be shocked. I, for one, never saw it coming. So I doubt you will. Get ready. Aren't you so ready to be shocked? You're never going to see this coming.

What comes next is the big revelation, so get ready!

Wait, I need to ask you something first. Did you know that the Irish like potatoes? Yeah, we really enjoy it. And alcohol too. It's pretty great. Erin Go Bragh! This means Ireland Forever! Unfortunately, you will be very sad to know that my father just died due to an Irish car bomb. Well, about 15 of them to be exact. All on an empty stomach! It makes me sad and you should feel sad too, kind reader.

Ok, on to the big reveal. Here it is:

On that frigid overcast day, which happened to be the day that I decided to quit reading The Kite Runner, I became a book snob.

Because The Kite Runner is adored by most people who read it, I am forced to conclude that most people need to read more. A whole lot more. You should be embarrassed if you like this book. Seriously. The moment I became a book snob (shortly after "The Scene"), I became so embarrassed to be seen reading it that I accused the guy sitting next to me on the subway of putting the book on my lap while I wasn't paying attention. "How dare you, sir? Have you no decency?" I exclaimed excitedly in my native language. Then I noticed a monkey on the platform waiting to board a train. I quickly hopped off my train, ran to him, handed him the book, and said "Top O' the Mornin' to ya! Enjoy!"

Later that day, I saw that monkey flying a kite in front of the Washington Monument. I noticed that the glass string wasn't making his hands bloody. Do you know why? He was wearing gloves. ...less

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Gita rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

05/08/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in May, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Buku yang sangat membuat penasaran.
Setelah mencari di berbagai toko buku yang selalu habis stocknya, akhirnya dapat juga pada minggu terakhir di bulan April. Perlu waktu kurang dari 1 minggu untuk membaca habis buku ini.

Buku ini menceritakan mengenai persahabatan antara 2 orang anak laki-laki yang bernama Amir dan Hassan. Ikatan mereka begitu kuat karena mereka disatukan oleh nasib yang sama yaitu tidak mempunyai ibu yang menyayangi mereka. Ibu Amir meninggal ketika melahirkan Amir, sedang...more

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Msmeemee rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

10/16/07

bookshelves: classic-lit

recommends it for: tear-jerking saps

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

so, it starts off strong. it almost feels like a biography, that's how real it felt to me. i actually looked on the back of the cover to see if it was based on a true story or something.

one thing i noticed off the bat was hosseini's style of writing. it was an extremely easy read. i wasn't sure if this was so it would be accessible to a wider audience or so we could concentrate more on the story rather than the prose or what. what's ironic is that the narrator and prota...more SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

so, it starts off strong. it almost feels like a biography, that's how real it felt to me. i actually looked on the back of the cover to see if it was based on a true story or something.

one thing i noticed off the bat was hosseini's style of writing. it was an extremely easy read. i wasn't sure if this was so it would be accessible to a wider audience or so we could concentrate more on the story rather than the prose or what. what's ironic is that the narrator and protagonist is supposed to be a gifted writer. anyway, the writing wasn't the book's strongest point. honestly, the author of the inner elvis had much better descriptive writing.

however, his simplistic writing style didn't take away from the emotions triggered in the story. i was practically bawling at every emotional scene. i have to say, though, that the rape scene, which is the first dramatic scene in the novel, was the best one. i know that sounds horrible, but it's timing and significance was on point.

and that's where things kinda went downhill for me. even though i was caught up in the story, things became really cliche. amir and hassan are the two protagonists in the story. amir is the son of baba, a wealthy and admired male widower while hassan is the hare-lipped hazara, people who are regarded as scum of the earth according to afghani history. anyway, hassan and his father, ali, are servants for baba and amir, but they are viewed as family. it's a refreshing departure from what could easily be a cinderlla-type plot.

anyway, amir is this really smart, well-educated pansy who can't stand up for himself for shit and hassan always backs him up, even taking on 3 guys on his own. there's a little rivalry between the two boys, with amir constantly testing hassan's loyalty and scoffing at him for seeming to be such a sucker. but when shit turns serious, amir doesn't return the sentiment.

the year that amir won a kite flying competition, hassan takes off for the last kite and ends up being cornered by child-sociopath, assef, and his cronies. when hassan refuses to give up the fallen kite, assef rapes him in an alley and amir watches the whole thing from a hiding place because he's too afraid to jump in and protect his friend.

as i kept reading, cliches and implausible coincidences start popping up everywhere. it turns out that amir and hassan are half-brothers. (i think i saw that plot-twist in days of our lives once.) when amir goes back to afghanistan to save hassan's now-orphan son, that son is held captive by --guess who?-- none other than assef who has become part of the taliban. the novel climaxes with assef kicking amir's ass. and who saves amir? hassan's son! with a fucking slingshot! (hassan was skilled at that, too.) amir gets reconstructive surgery and ends up with a scar down his lip like hassan had when he had surgery for his hare-lip. good lord. then there was this brief encounter where amir comes across an old homeless guy who just happened to know amir's mother before she died giving birth to amir. how would that ever happen?

to be fair, it had a really good storyline. i still maintain that the first third was well executed. the beginning of the book stands its ground well, but that may have just made the rest of the book pale in comparison even more so. it almost felt like the author was desperately reaching for the audience's acceptance (it's his first novel). or he hurried through the rest of the book and needed to increase the tear-jerker factor exponentially by making me cry at every page to cover up the fact that he was running out of quality ideas. on a positive note, it might add more depth to an already mysterious and often feared culture in light of 9/11.

but when all is said and done, it's still an interesting read.

final word on the kite runner: i can't wait for the movie adaptation. hollywood would eat that shit up.
...less

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Naeem rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

12/22/07

recommends it for: anyone wanting to keep their blinders on

I found this book a failure of courage and imagination -- all the more upsetting for the author's astute sense of detail and wonderful psychological depth. But ask yourself this: if the Taliban are real human than why are they not represented as such? No doubt we will all love the movie as well.

If you want to read a book on Afghanistan, I recommend Jason Elliot's An Unexpected Light.

Below is my complete review:

I started ...more

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Shannon rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

05/28/08

bookshelves: 2007, bookclub, contemporary-fiction

Read in March, 2007

This is a largely uncritical review, but I found it to be a beautiful, haunting, powerful tale. The Kite Runner is about a young boy, Amir, growing up in a wealthy part of Kabul, Afghanistan, the only son of a popular entrepenuer, who betrays his best friend and later has a chance to redeem himself. As his father's best friend, Kahim, says, "There's a way to be good again."

Amir grows up with Hassan, the Hazara servant boy whose father, Ali, grew up with Amir's father. Hassa...more This is a largely uncritical review, but I found it to be a beautiful, haunting, powerful tale. The Kite Runner is about a young boy, Amir, growing up in a wealthy part of Kabul, Afghanistan, the only son of a popular entrepenuer, who betrays his best friend and later has a chance to redeem himself. As his father's best friend, Kahim, says, "There's a way to be good again."

Amir grows up with Hassan, the Hazara servant boy whose father, Ali, grew up with Amir's father. Hassan's mother left as soon as he was born, and he endured taunts and bullying all his life, especially for being a Hazara, which I've never heard of before but I gather it's like being a Jew in Nazi Germany, only with no money or education. So maybe it's more like the black slaves? Anyway, Amir knows he's a coward, he wants to write stories, not fight back against the likes of local, half-German tough boy Assef, who idolises Hitler. He knows his father is disappointed in him, and is jealous when his dad ("Baba") shows affection and preferential treatment toward Hassan.

Hassan is also the best kite runner in the city. The boys play a kite-flying game in winter; the strings are coated in tar and cut glass, and they deftly fly them so that their kite cuts the strings of other boys' kites. The winner is the last kite in the air, and extra kudos to you if you run down the last kite to be cut.

Amir wins the kite flying tournament one year, and sends Hassan off after the last cut kite. Hassan, devoted and loyal to Amir, runs off, saying over his shoulder, "For you, a thousand times over." Winning the tournament means everything to Amir, for Baba will love him now. But Amir witnesses something horrible horrible horrible, and does nothing, says nothing. Even when he learns that Hassan knows he saw what happened, Amir does nothing. He chooses his father's attention and love over Hassan. Because Hassan's presence reminds Amir of what happened, he can't stand being around him anymore, and finds a way to get rid of both Hassan and Ali.

Amir is a very interesting character. As a boy, aware of his own weaknesses, he is not very likeable, though as a literary character his personality is so well written, his first-person voice edged with a touch of snobby, upper-class arrogance. He is embarrassed by Hassan: while he likes to play with him, when Amir's other friends are around Hassan isn't invited to join in, and Amir never calls him his friend. When Amir is older, he knows that Hassan was the better person, the stronger and braver and kinder, more generous soul. But Amir is just a child, and one with high expectations of himself, let alone his father's.

There were many things to love about this book. First of all, it wasn't set in the 50s!! It starts out in the 70s, when Amir is about 12, and follows him through to 2002, about a year after 9/11. It is very eye-opening in regards to Afghanistan, a country where, frankly, very few of us know much about. The Kite Runner reveals how relatively modern their lives were before the Russians entered the scene, and how the Taliban were welcomed at first because they got rid of the Russians. After that, Hosseini is very unforgiving towards the Taliban, and paints a very black picture of them. When Amir has to return from America to Afghanistan, the depictions of the Taliban executing adulterers and threatening people for cheering too loudly at sports events, is frightening. What happens to Amir when he encounters an old foe is even scarier. Yet this is not a morbid book. There is a vein of silver running all through it: hope. The book ends with hope, a small nugget of it, a private, personal hope, but important nonetheless.

Hosseini shows the human side of Afghanistan, not the poppy-growing, fanatical side. He paints a picture of Kabul full of Mulberry and pomegranate trees, green grass and playing fields and parks, markets full of the spicy aroma of kabobs, and a tightly-knit community no less family-oriented than the Greeks or Italians. I learnt about some Afghan customs, I even learnt the meaning of some words, like <'>Inshallah</i> ("God willing", if my memory serves me correctly - I don't have the book with me).

This is a sad tale, for what was lost and what was - and is - endured, but also a warm one, for the colourful characters, the solidarity, the determination. Ultimately a story of survival and redemption, The Kite Runner was thoroughly enjoyable, a quick, not particularly challenging read, but one that challenges our assumptions and prejudices....less

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Britta rated it:

(review of isbn 1594480001)

01/10/08

Read in February, 2006

"For you, a thousand times over."

"Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors."

"...attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun."

"But even when he wasn't around, he was."

"When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal a wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fair...more

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