An excellent debut (The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini)

Member Name: burtybookworm

Product:	The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Date:	25/09/08 (160 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well written, absorbing

Disadvantages: irritating main character, but he does improve!

Perhaps unusually, I read The Kite Runner after I'd read A Thousand Splendid Suns, and even more unusually from what Ive read of other reviews, I found it to be a less satisfying read than A Thousand Splendid Suns.

~~So whats it about?~~

The story is about two boys growing up in Afghanistan before and during the outbreak of trouble. Amir lives a privileged life as the son of a wealthy businessman, and Hassan is his very loyal friend - and also the son of the families servant. Hassan is a loving and loyal friend to Amir, sticking up for him when he is being bullied, cooking for him and basially being totally devoted to him. Amir, although he enjoys Hassan's company, does not reflect the same relationship back to Hassan, mainly because Hassan is a hazara and most Sh'ia Muslims in Afghanistans worked for the wealthy families.
This story tells of how the boys spent their time growing up, the extent of Hassan's loyalty to his friend and the length to which Amir would go to impress his father, leading to an outcome that changes all of their lives forever.

~~My Opinion~~
Like A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Kite Runner is beautifully written, and I still found the book enjoyable. However, my issue with it is that I found I couldn't empathise with the main character, Amir, as much as I could the two women in A Thousand Splendid Suns. I found the main character weak, which is, once you read the book , what he is trying to overcome and why his story has so many terrible consequences. Due to Amir's huge flaws, up until half way through the book, I didn't really care what happened to him. Amir as a child is jealous, spiteful, selfish and a coward (now who can blame me for not giving a damn what happened to him?!).

However, Hassan's attributes are the exact opposite, and for this reason I kept reading, and I'm glad I did! Without spoiling it, this book did pick up in the last quarter and I found myself rooting for the main character again and realising that he has some redeeming features to the reader that make this book compelling reading, how someone can change and try to redeem themselves, and make up if not undo what has happened in the past.

To sum up - this book is an excellent read, and worth buying as it is beautifully written as I've mentioned, but in my opinion A Thousand Splendid Suns seems much more inspirational to me (im sure others would disagree!) .

Both books however give a new perspective to Afghanistan to those who know little about the Country and history, and Id suggest reading both to see the different perspectives portrayed from the two female Afghans in A Thousand Splendid Suns, and a male Afghan in The Kite Runner.

It is definitely one to add to the list of must reads simply for the fact that Khaled Husseini writes with such passion about his homeland and the atrocities that it has suffered.

Summary: Worthy of the praise heaped on for this debut.