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In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.
The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")
Some of the plot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible, but Hosseini has created characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runner is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust into the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping lattes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz"), Hosseini offers an honest, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt view of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon. --Gisele Toueg
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I finished it but wouldn't recommend it.- While I did finish this book and it's interesting how tortured the main character is, there are just too many acts of sodomy for one book, in my opinion. I just didn't like some of the scenes, especially in the end. Really, what doctor is going to drag out that a loved one is alive and survived a trauma? I feel like I'm suppose to be sympathetic to the main character, and just can't. It seems that he never actually grows up or has any responsibility. I totally reject the book's reason of "Afghans are reckless." No, the character in this book was reckless.
Despite my not really liking the book and not liking the characters and not wanting to recommend this to anyone, the writing was quite good. Obviously good enough that I finished it within a week. I did also like the Farsi interspersed in the English. Reminded me of my childhood friend and her family.
I can't recommend it despite the couple of good things I found in it.
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