Afghanistan

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime." 

Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashtuns. Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir's choice to abandon his friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, wrenching them far apart. But so strong is the bond between the two boys that Amir journeys back to a distant world, to try to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

My thoughts:

The Kite Runner is one of the best books that I have read in a long time.  Also, one of the heaviest.  The author claims that this book is purely fiction, but having read a lot of fiction and non-fiction I can't help but think that there has to be some truth to this story.  It is different from anything that I have read before, like most non-fiction, you can't completely make this stuff up.  The emotions are too real and hard to get through in many parts.  

I finished this book just before Independence Day and watched the movie with my husband.  I would stop the movie and give more details into the story as we watched.   We went to a neighborhood breakfast on Independence Day and a Veteran took some time to talk to us about his experiences in Afghanistan.  He mentioned some of the tribes that are described in this book and he gave some history.  His stories were so much more powerful after having read The Kite Runner and being able to know even a little bit more of what he was describing to us.

I felt completely immersed in this story while reading it.  Knowing almost nothing about this region of the world, other than the conflict that we hear so much about, it was fascinating to read a book that describes the area, culture, and ethnic traditions so well.  I learned so much.  This is the book that inspired me to read a book from every country in hopes to have a similar experience from each one.

My Ratings:

Well written:  Yes

Easy to follow:  Yes

Held my attention:  Yes

Would I recommend this to a friend:  Yes
Did it represent the country: Yes

Content:

Explicit Language:  Yes, all common explicit words

Sexual Content: Descriptive Rape of a child by another child

Violence: Beatings and executions, mentions of adult raping of a child

For mature readers.  I had days that I was not in a good frame of mind to read the dark heaviness of this book.  I had to take breaks from it from time to time. 

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 391