The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2004, Paperback, Reprint)

More Than Just A Good Read
Book Review
By James Myers
www.myspace.com/jameswmye​rs
http://www.morebeautifulw​oman.com/more_than_a_good_read


THE KITE
RUNNER
#1 ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST
A SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN ENTERAINMENT WEEKLY TOP TEN FICTION PICK OF THE YEAR
AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTABLE BOOK
RECIPIENT OF THE AMERICAN PLACE THEATRE’S LITERATURE TO LIFE AWARD
By Khaled Hosseini
Published by
River Books, Published by Penguin Books
ISBN 1-57322-245-3
371 Pages
www.riverheadbooks.com
www.penguin.com


“For kite runners, the most coveted prize was the last fallen kite of a winter tournament. It was a trophy of honor, something to be displayed on the mantle for guests to admire. When the sky cleared of kites and only the final two remained, every kite runner readied himself for the chance to land this prize. He positioned himself at a spot that he thought would give him a head start. Tense muscles readied themselves to uncoil. Necks craned. Eyes crinkled. Fights broke out. And when the last kite was out, all hell broke loose.”

“Over the years, I had seen a lot of guys run kites. But Hassan was by far the greatest kite runner I’d ever seen. It was downright eerie the way he always got to the spot the kite would land before the kite did, as if he had some sort of inner compass.”

Rating:
(Four Stars)


Khaled Hosseini first novel is a haunting and convincing study of modern day Afghanistan that will not be easily forgotten. Amir is the son of a rich and powerful merchant, Baba. Baba has a lifelong house servant, Ali, who has a son Hassan. Hassan and Amir are best of friends with Amir writing their names in a tree and reading to Hassan his favorite Afgan fairy tales. Amir and his father have an uneasy balance between them. Amir’s mother, Sofia died in childbirth, an act that the father considers as an unforgivable theft. Worse yet Baba is a physically strong businessman of action, while his quiet son is a young man of books and writing. Only family friend, Rahim Khan, and Hassan seems to appreciate Amir’s talents. Rahim tells him that some day he will write books for the whole world to read. Amir and Hassan are inseparable friends, and Hassan proves his loyalty to Amir when confronted by local bullies by saving his life. Hassan has one other talent, as a Kite Runner par excellence, a person who runs downs the losers destroyed kite in an annual winter kite flying contest. Amir has it turns out is a great kite flyer. His father has told him that you will win the event this winter. On a night when Amir can finally please his father, he does in fact win the kite flying contest and his loyal servant and friend, Hassan does recover the last kite shredded. But he fails to act when he can to save his good friend Hassan from harm, and this betrayal leads to their separation, guilt and despair. The theme of acting on loyalty is a major reoccurring theme is this book.

Years pass. Amir leaves war torn Afghanistan, reconciles with his father, moves to American, marries a beautiful, young, vibrant woman, and becomes the author he seems destined to become. He is comfortable and has every reason to be happy. But his failure to come to the aid of his friend and their separation continues to haunt him. All of this changes when his old friend, Rahim Khan contacts him and requests him to return to Taliban run, war-infested Afghanistan.

The earth turns and the wind blows and sometimes some marvelous scrap of paper is blown against the fence for us to find. And once found, we become aware there are places out there that are both foreign and familiar. Funny what the wind brings.
And now it brings "The Kite Runner," a beautiful novel by Afghan-American Khaled Hosseini that ranks among the best-written and provocative stories of the year so far.

Hosseini's first novel -- and the first Afghan novel to be written originally in English -- "The Kite Runner" tells a heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between Amir, the son of a wealthy Afghan businessman, and Hassan, the son of his father's servant. Amir is Sunni; Hassan is Shi'a. One is born to a privileged class; the other to a loathed minority. One to a father of enormous presence; the other to a crippled man. One is a voracious reader; the other illiterate.

The poor Hassan is born with a hare lip, but Amir's gaps are better hidden, deep inside.

Yet Amir and Hassan live and play together, not simply as friends, but as brothers without mothers. Their intimate story traces across the expansive canvas of history, 40 years in Afghanistan's tragic evolution, like a kite under a gathering storm. The reader is blown from the last days of Kabul's monarchy -- salad days in which the boys lives' are occupied with school, welcome snows, American cowboy movies and neighborhood bullies -- into the atrocities of the Taliban, which turned the boys' green playing fields red with blood.

This unusually eloquent story is also about the fragile relationship fathers and sons, humans and their gods, men and their countries. Loyalty and blood are the ties that bind their stories into one of the most lyrical, moving and unexpected books of this year.

Hosseini's title refers to a traditional tournament for Afghan children in which kite-flyers compete by slicing through the strings of their opponents with their own razor-sharp, glass-encrusted strings. To be the child who wins the tournament by downing all the other kites -- and to be the "runner" who chases down the last losing kite as it flutters to earth -- is the greatest honor of all.

And in that metaphor of flyer and runner, Hosseini's story soars.

And fear not, gentle reader. This isn't a "foreign" book. Unlike Boris Pasternak's "Dr. Zhivago," Hosseini's narrative resonates with familiar rhythms and accessible ideas, all in prose that equals or exceeds the typical American story form. While exotic Afghan customs and Farsi words pop up occasionally, they are so well-defined for the reader that the book is enlightening and fascinating, not at all tedious.

Nor is it a dialectic on Islam. Amir's beloved father, Baba, is the son of a wise judge who enjoys his whiskey, television, and the perks of capitalism. A moderate in heart and mind, Hosseini has little good to say about Islamic extremism.

"The Kite Runner" is a song in a new key. Hosseini is an exhilaratingly original writer with a gift for irony and a gentle, perceptive heart. His canvas might be a place and time Americans are only beginning to understand, but he paints his art on the page, where it is intimate and poignant.

I decided to buy this book after reading the authors second book entitled "A Thousand Splendid Suns" - which was one of the very best books I have ever read. I saw it on a shelf in the store and picked it up on a whim, not knowing much about it or the author, but hoping it would help me to pass some time. It did more than that... This author mentions many factual historic events in his books while offering a beautifully written fictional story, however, although his books that are based on "fictional" Afghani lives and events, much of what he writes of are true facts and happenings in the every day lives of people who live in that country. So, after reading his second book, I couldn't help but order his first book the very day I finished his second. Khaled Hosseini writes in a way that any reader can relate to. Once you begin any of his books, you will find it difficult to put it down....even if you HAVE to! I learned a lot about Afghani women and how difficult their lives are, and I also learned a lot about the country itself, and the many wars they have had to endure over the years. I have developed an emotional attachment and sympathy for these people and the way they are forced to live, and came to realize just how naive I really was about anything that had to do with Afghanistan. There is much corruption, abuse, illness, and poverty in Afghanistan. The Kite Runner is a book filled with non-stop movement, heart pounding events, and emotion. I would buy this book even for a person who doesn't read at all. Everyone who is anyone should read this book and any other book written by this author. Both books are pure masterpieces and I am blown away by this authors ability to captivate the reader as if you are right there with the people and living in the events he writes about. You will live within his books, learn through them, and feel many emotions in the midst. I am looking forward to reading each and every book written by Khaled Hosseini, and my hopes are held high that he keeps on writing for many years to come. Kudos, Khaled....

A friend recommended The Kite Runner after having purchased it in an airport bookstore. I was delighted to find it on eBay and consider it one of the best book purchases I have made. The writing style of Dr. Hosseini is that of an artist painting detailed landscapes of an unfamiliar (to me) setting and intricate lines on the faces of his characters. The near-poetic prose allows the reader to enter the heart and soul of Amir, the anxious child who became the haunted man. The reader steps into the hills and onto the rooftops of Afghanistan--somewhere I never aspired to be and yet lived joyfully until the plot turns angrily with the Russian invasion. Throughout the intriguing story of relationships lost and restored, there's a sense of dignity and triumph of human spirit. The book has given me more insight into the people and the modern history of Afghanistan, as well as a better understanding of the multitude of Afghanis who have established a community for themselves in the United States. There are some books that one can never erase from memory; this is one for me.

This is a book you wont want to put down that takes place in Afghanistan. Khaled Hosseini also is the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns. The Kite Runner is just a great read and gives an insight into Afghanistan in days past, another way of life that changed drastically with the take over by other factors. A beautiful country that has known great devastation and social upheaval. Read both books - they are great and I sent them on to my children. Kabul had been a town of great beauty - a fine university, flowers and gardens where women were respected and all that changed - the individual freedoms were lost - women could not enter the hospitals - too much to put in a brief review. The book is a very interesting story of two young boys - one privileged and the other the servant and how their lives developed. A story of a country that has know invasions and social change.