I am reading this right now and I have to say... it's a really good book. I am not an ignorant person, but I am not aware of a lot of things that have happened in the past.
E.g. I learned A LOT about the Biafra war after reading Half of a Yellow sun at the age of 25!
With this book, although I hear about the Taliban(obviously!!!) and Afghanistan and countries involved with them, it's just what I read in the news I take in... I like this book because the story(emotional, shocking, to say the least) is very good but it's a history lesson for me too.
There are so many characters to discuss:
Amir, the main character... Very jealous... weak... not a very admirable character.
Hassan, a 'Hazara' (an outcast, looked down on by many) - he and his father were slaves of Amir and his father. Hassan is a gentle soul, he made sacrifices for Amir. He loved Amir, for this reason - Amir got on my nerves more because of the things he did.
Assef - Pure Evil
Sohrab - You have to read to find out more about him - He's Hassan's son.
I really liked the book.
Synopsis:
Khaled Hosseini's stunning debut novel The Kite Runner follows a young boy, Amir, as he faces the challenges that confront him on the path to manhood—testing friendships, finding love, cheating death, accepting faults, and gaining understanding. Living in Afghanistan in the 1960s, Amir enjoys a life of privilege that is shaped by his brotherly friendship with Hassan, his servant's son. Amir lives in constant want of his father's attention, feeling that he is a failure in his father's eyes. Hassan, on the other hand, seems to be able to do no wrong. Their friendship is a complex tapestry of love, loss, privilege, and shame.
Striving to be the son his father always wanted, Amir takes on the weight of living up to unrealistic expectations and places the fate of his relationship with his father on the outcome of a kite running tournament, a popular challenge in which participants must cut down the kites of others with their own kite. Amir wins the tournament. Yet just as he begins to feel that all will be right in the world, a tragedy occurs with his friend Hassan in a back alley on the very streets where the boys once played. This moment marks a turning point in Amir's life—one whose memory he seeks to bury by moving to America. There he realizes his dream of becoming a writer and marries for love but the memory of that fateful day will prove too strong to forget. Eventually it draws Amir back to Afghanistan to right the wrongs that began that day in the alley and continued in the days, months, and years that followed.
Khaled Hosseini's stunning debut novel The Kite Runner follows a young boy, Amir, as he faces the challenges that confront him on the path to manhood—testing friendships, finding love, cheating death, accepting faults, and gaining understanding. Living in Afghanistan in the 1960s, Amir enjoys a life of privilege that is shaped by his brotherly friendship with Hassan, his servant's son. Amir lives in constant want of his father's attention, feeling that he is a failure in his father's eyes. Hassan, on the other hand, seems to be able to do no wrong. Their friendship is a complex tapestry of love, loss, privilege, and shame.
Striving to be the son his father always wanted, Amir takes on the weight of living up to unrealistic expectations and places the fate of his relationship with his father on the outcome of a kite running tournament, a popular challenge in which participants must cut down the kites of others with their own kite. Amir wins the tournament. Yet just as he begins to feel that all will be right in the world, a tragedy occurs with his friend Hassan in a back alley on the very streets where the boys once played. This moment marks a turning point in Amir's life—one whose memory he seeks to bury by moving to America. There he realizes his dream of becoming a writer and marries for love but the memory of that fateful day will prove too strong to forget. Eventually it draws Amir back to Afghanistan to right the wrongs that began that day in the alley and continued in the days, months, and years that followed.
Thanks Vickii for recommending this.
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Where have you been? Anyway welcome back. I saved this site hoping to get information on good books to read.
I think i may be speaking for other readers of your blog when i say we need you to post more often.
Promise?
Anonymous said...
1:31 AM
I read this book a while back and cried by the end. It is such an amazing one... The imagery, the culture, all that stuff. Anyway, i'd love to know what your thoughts are when youre done. I'm reading his second book now and so far, i'm captivated. I'll let you know how it goes! "A Thousand Splendid Suns"
O.šeyï said...
1:10 AM
Read a few reviews of the book... Most seem to agree that it is excellent.. I seem to get the feeling that it makes for heavy reading somewhat... qui? non?
lost-not yet found said...
1:12 PM
I honestly wouldn't call it heavy at all... its something you unknowingly get sucked into. The story is too interesting. I hooked from the first page so no... no heavy reading. Leisure reading maybe... :)
O.šeyï said...
4:41 PM
Hi :-)
Sorry for not updating often. I will try to have it updated once a week? :-)
I really liked the book, had a discussion about it in a real-life book club.
First of all - it isn't heavy reading at all... Heavy reading is the book I read after it (We need to talk about Kevin).
o.seyi - I enjoyed the book... The main character, most of us agreed, was weak... jealous... weak... weak..., LOL!!!
Hassan - what a special person. If there's anyone like that I ever meet, I'll cherish them forever.
Amir's Dad - When you find out some things later, it kinda explains his behavior towards his son and Hassan.
Amir did find out some things that shocked him as time went on.... he witnessed something really horrible(Hassan related)when he was young, and did nothing about it.
His guilt, and probably disgust at his uselessness, caused him to do worse things that removed Hassan from his life.
Decades later... I don't want to give too much away. I enjoyed it. Read it!
Anonymous said...
3:38 AM
Ok.. i love this book a lot...
one of my personal favourites...
I like most of the books you have reviwed... read quite a number of them...
ever stumbled on "The God Of Small things"
by Arundhati Roy??
Jaja said...
12:05 PM
No Jaja... thank you, I'll check that book out.
LondonBuki said...
5:40 AM