| Product: |
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini |
| Date: |
26.04.07 (1641 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Absorbing book, draws you in, beautifully written, journey with the characters
Disadvantages: Harrowing at times
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is an absorbing tale of life in Afghanistan. It tells the tale of Amir a young boy from a fairly wealthy family in Afghanistan. This is Afghanistan in the 1970’s before the Taliban and before the Soviet invasion. Amir lives in a nice house with his father (his mother died shortly after childbirth) and in the grounds of the house lives his fathers servant Ali with his son Hassan.
Hassan is the kite-runner of the story but I will explain what that means later. Ali and Hassan come from the lower caste Hazaras and Amir although happy to play with the illiterate Hassan when he needs a friend at other times ignores him or makes fun of his inability to read or write. Throughout the story Hassan always remains the loyal friend and it is this loyalty that the story is about.
Amir wants to win the respect and love of his father but feels that his father is disappointed in him because Amir is not good at sports and prefers to spend his time reading his dead mothers books. However Amir discovers that there is one way he can earn his fathers love and that is to win the kite tournament.
Now in this country kite flying is a gentle pastime but in Afghanistan it is something altogether different, in fact I believe in certain areas it has in fact been banned because of the danger. The difference in a Afghanistan tournament is that the competition is to be the last remaining kite still flying. The strings of the kites are made from a combination of ground glass and glue so that the flyer can pull the kite down and cut the strings of another kite. The flyer will end up with their hands cut to shreds as they try to maintain their kite in the air. It can be a dangerous sport.
Once the last kite has been cut down that is when the kite runners part comes in. The kite runners main aim is to find the last kite to be cut down and that is the prized trophy. Often they can be running for ages to find it and remember that these tournaments were held in the towns so they have to run up and down the winding streets and alleyways always looking up to see where the kite is going to fall.
Hassan is an excellent kite runner he seems to be able to predict just where the kite will land, on this day when Amir enters the contest Hassan sets out to get the last kite for Amir, as he runs he says to Amir “For you, a thousand times over”, these words are words which will haunt Amir for the rest of his life as on this afternoon an unmentionable event happens which has life-changing consequences for both Hassan and Amir.
This novel is a tale of class distinction, of racism between the different factions of Muslims, of friendship and of betrayal, of a boys quest to earn his fathers love and of how the past can return to haunt you and of doing the right thing.
Hosseini does not hold back in his description of life in Afghanistan especially in the Taliban era. He paints a picture of Afghanistan which is both intriguing and haunting. This is clearly a book written by someone who knows Afghanistan well and indeed on researching the author I discovered that Khaled had been brought up in Afghanistan. Some of the feelings that Amir felt, the fear in leaving the only home he knew, the despair at seeing his beautiful country ruined, Hosseini also probably felt. Khaled and his family escaped Afghanistan and received political asylum in the US in 1980 and Amir in the story flees Afghanistan for a new life in the US.
It is a beautifully written novel and it captures you from the start and pulls you into life in Afghanistan, you feel the fear, the excitement, it is not a novel you want to put down. For me it was so different to many of the books I choose to read. I was lent this book by my boss at work, several of my colleagues had read it and had been discussing it at work so she gave it to me to read. I don’t think I would have chosen to read it myself, preferring on the whole much lighter reading matter but I am so glad I did read it. It is thought provoking, it gives an insight into life in another country and its shown me another author that I would like to read more from in the future.
The characters are very believable and you feel that you get to know them. Amir is a strange character, he is the main character of the book but you don’t really warm to him until nearer the end of the novel. At times you feel sorry for him as he feels unloved by his father but at other times you feel he is cruel and nasty. The ever loyal Hassan on the other hand is a very sweet innocent likeable young boy who would do anything for Amir. I like the fact that you go on a journey with these characters and you see how they change as they grow and how life’s unexpected twists and turns change and shape their characters.
To give you a little taster of the book, I have included the first paragraph. I hope this illustrates just how the book draws you in as you travel with Amir to find out what happened that day and how 26 years later Amir might be able to feel at peace with himself.
“I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”
Useful Information
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Number of Pages - 324
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN-10: 0747566534
ISBN-13: 978-0747566533
Format - Paperback
Price currently £3.99 from Amazon
Summary: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini a tale of childhood in Afghanistan
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