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The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini

Start date: December 1, 2017

Finish date: December 30, 2017

Discussion: Country and Territories

Why we're reading this: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

December 2017 book for Countries and Territories
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December 2017 book for Countries and Territories

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Country and Territories

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What Members Thought

Mar 08, 2012 Heather rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-favourite-books, 2015, 2016

There is nothing much to say about this powerful book that hasn't already been said. In my mind, books become popular for a reason, and although I had stayed away from this one for WAY too long, I will be pursuing Hosseini's other books this year. The emotion and turmoil I felt while reading this book was intense, but there was a lot of hope and kindness in it at times too. Books like this really open my eyes to life in other parts of the world. ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Alana rated it really liked it

Shelves: educational, books-to-film, historical-fiction, foreign-culture

This is a heavy book. Yes, it's set in the backdrop of war, devastating a nation of long history of culture and beauty, and there are a few scenes of war, but the heaviness is from the weight of guilt, from one's past haunting and eventually catching up, from facing some great evils with fear or courage (sometimes both) and the ultimate consequences of all choices.

I don't like the narrator. But I'm not really supposed to. I keep reminding myself in the beginning section that he's a kid, that he' This is a heavy book. Yes, it's set in the backdrop of war, devastating a nation of long history of culture and beauty, and there are a few scenes of war, but the heaviness is from the weight of guilt, from one's past haunting and eventually catching up, from facing some great evils with fear or courage (sometimes both) and the ultimate consequences of all choices.

I don't like the narrator. But I'm not really supposed to. I keep reminding myself in the beginning section that he's a kid, that he's afraid, that who knows what I would do if faced with some of the choices he is. But at the same time, there are some moments that I simply cannot fathom treating another individual as he does, and in some ways, end up glad for some of the guilt he carries through his life. Not really, though, because we all have our own areas of great guilt, but some are more outward than others.

The ending is obvious to a degree, but fitting, and hopeful in the midst of great darkness. There is some hope for a kind of restoration, of a recaptured life, though very different from the imagined future of the beginning (isn't that true for EVERY life?). It's not a fairy-tale ending, though, which I appreciate. It's honest, but hopeful, more accurate to the human experience as we know it.

"There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sine is a variation of theft." - So says Baba early in the story. I pondered this, comparing it to the commonly known list of commandments in the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and I find that this is a relatively good summation. Jesus summed up the law as "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." Basically, don't steal from God, either your devotion, or the truth, and don't steal from others, by lying about or to them, harming them, etc. Either way, it means to love God and love others, as you wish yourself to be loved.

Very late in the book, he is in the waiting area of a hospital, and has this thought as he looks at the other people waiting around him: "I see now...there is a God, there always had been. I see Him here, in the eyes of the people in this corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God, this is where those who have lost God will find Him..." (emphasis mine). Oh, the truth in this! The most profound encounters of the divine are so often in the desperation of the hospital room, crying out over a loved one, or one's own life or circumstances, "trench prayers" of those facing their most desperate hour, that are the most honest of all.

It's not a story for children, although depending on the emotional stability of the child, a teenager could handle it, but hopefully with much discussion and decompression with an understanding adult. It's a little slow in the middle, but everything fits back together again in the end. It's not a must-read, for everyone, but it's WORTH the read, if you are up for it.
3.5/5 ...more

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