Customer Reviews

The Kite Runner

5 star:		(149)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

...on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975." So begins The Kite Runner, a poignant tale of two motherless boys growing up in Kabul, a city teetering on the brink of destruction at the dawn of the Soviet invasion.
Despite their class differences, Amir, the son of a wealthy businessman, and Hassan, his devoted sidekick and the son of Amir's household servant, play together, cause mischief together, and compete in the annual kite-fighting tournament -- Amir flying the kite, and Hassan running down the kites they fell. But one day, Amir betrays Hassan, and his betrayal grows increasingly devastating as their tale continues. Amir will spend much of his life coming to terms with his initial and subsequent acts of cowardice, and finally seek to make reparations.

Hosseini's depiction of the cruelty children suffer at the hands of their "friends" will break your heart. And his descriptions of Afghanistan both before and after the war will haunt readers long after they've read the last page. The Kite Runner is a stunning reminder that the dark hearts of adults are made, step-by-step, by the hatred they learn as children, and that all it takes for evil to triumph is for a good man to stand back and do nothing. Another great novel in the genre is'Quest'by Giorgio Kostantinos, it's one not to be missed.

This book was full of different emotions for me as I read through each page. Mr. Hosseini has done a great job of describing the characters, their emotions and the events in details that will stay with you for a long time. I must say that I still get tears in my eyes when I explain some parts of the story to the people that have not yet had the opportunity to read the book. Should you read the book? Yes, if you believe in the troubles in the world, in realities of life, loyality and family, then go for it. This has become one of the favourites of my collection. I also think that this book is an opportunity to learn for others who do not know the troubles that people in afghanistan have faced during this continued war for 30+ years. I heard the next book :A thousand Splendid Suns by the same author is another great book to read and I can not wait to start it.

This is a knock you over great book. It is worth every cent. It has great literary value like you find in "Lovely Bones", "Time Traveler's Wife", or "My Fractured Life", but at the same time it really gets you to think about right, wrong, and the blurred lines between as with "The Five People You Find in Heaven" and "Secret Life of Bees." I highly suggest picking up a copy, you won't be disappointed.

I haven't received the kite runner since and we have started using it in class. please when am i going to get the book because its over a month since i ordered for the book.

Told in breath taking prose, this is an epic story of family, friendship, and redemption. Hosseini gives us a good sense of what Afghanistan was like both pre and post Taliban, the good, the bad, and the devastating.

Khaled Hosseini was the reader of this audio book. At first his reading seemed a bit choppy to me however, within the first few chapters he spoke pitch perfect. I felt as if I was right there, in the story.

I saw the movie version, which I liked a lot. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and see it. However, the even better treat, is this book! Highly recommended. I am looking forward to reading A Thousand Splendid Suns!

Opening in Afghanistan in the mid-seventies, this novel tells the story of a young Afghani man's struggle to win his father's approval, against a background of his country's turbulent politics, where control passes through the hands of various kings into those of Russia, and finally into the hands of the religiously fanatical Taliban.

Yet to me the appeal of the story lies not the changes of government, nor in the depiction of a different, Islamic culture, but in the all too human story of the hero, Amir, as he is caught in his own personal turmoil. Love, fear and ambition war together, and the price of his success is betrayal and guilt. Were he to have acted out his life in any other time, place or culture, it would have made little difference. The happiness and pain of his life are personal, and the background of violent change from feudalism to communism to theocracy remains just that - a background.

This sets me to thinking - as a good novel should, - that we are all much the same. Skin colour can change, the language in which we express our belief in God, or the lack of it. Though these change, the essentials of our lives do not.

It seems to me that the real politics, the real struggle in life, is between two spirits. One is optimistic and cheerful, that recognises love and says to strive for a better world, and one is dark and full of fear, and says to lash out and hurt, and destroy the world in hatred and despair.

These two are universal, and greater than all differences in culture or religion, and this novel speaks to me because I find that these two spirits also live in me, and battle with each other.

Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven

THE KITE RUNNER is one of the few books that I've bought several copies of---just to give away to friends. It is truly a harrowing yet touching tale. Recreating the day-to-day existence of Amir and his father (Baba), a successful merchant in Kabul in the 1970's, Hosseini creates a warm and emotionally involving story of childhood, its traumas, and the importance of family in THE KITE RUNNER. Telling of two families--Amir and his father, and Hassan and Ali, their servants--he depicts two different worlds. Amir and Baba are Pashtuns, while Hassan and Ali are Hazaras, descendants of the Moguls who are also Shi'a Muslims, and it is in these parallel tracks that we come to see the variety of life in Afghanistan, its mores, traditions, and its hierarchies. Best friends, the boys grow up together, though Hassan, the servant, bears the burden of being different in appearance, both because of his Mogul heritage and because of his unrepaired hair-lip. When the boys are twelve, Hassan is beaten and severely injured by bullies, while Amir, who witnesses the attack, runs away in fear. Burdened by guilt and jealous of the close relationship between his father and Hassan and Ali, Amir manipulates their dismissal. Six years later, after a Communist coup, Amir and his father escape to the United States, where, away from the roles demanded of them in Kabul, they are on a more equal footing and come to new understandings. When Amir gets a phone call from his father's former business partner, twenty years later, he returns to Afghanistan to put his betrayal of Hassan to rights and "be good again." THE KITE RUNNER is a lesson in how we're all connected, or can be if we only look. Must also highly recommend the book BARK OF THE DOGWOOD which is just as well written and compelling. Good stuff, these books.

While reading The Kite Runner, I was struck by the similarities to a sad, divisive time in U.S. history- the pre-civil war era of slave and master, a time when the oppressed were stripped of their freedom, but clung fiercely inside to their humanity, while the oppressors had all the outward signs of dignity and nobility, but inside were spiritually bankrupt. Like Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn with Jim the slave, the boyhood friendship between Amir and Hassan echo the best work of Mark Twain, but Hosseini takes Twain a step further by showing the adult consequences of their childhood relationship, in emotional and intelligent fashion. It is a masterpiece for a country that still struggles to define itself, and that Hosseini was able to weave such an important work out of the turmoil of Afghanistan's recent, unfortunate history only adds to the deserved mystique and glowing critiques this book is receiving. For those who had a hard time liking Amir, I'm sure Hosseini meant for him to be a kind of anti-hero early on, with eyes closed to the sufferings of others as he was taught from birth. Part of the story is his struggle to realize- and then reject- his false attitude of superiority. In the end, this is a novel of self-realization, and a kind of personal emancipation from prejudice and ingrained cultural discrimination. It's also a novel of salvation, hope, and faith, and that's what makes it great.

-Mark Wakely, author of An Audience for Einstein

At first I was reluctant to read this book. Everyone was raving about it and I figured it couldn't possibly live up to the hype. But the thing is, it does. This is a great book and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.

The book is a great story about love, friendship, betrayal, and redemption. It is also set against the backdrop of the Afghanistan and the whole change in regime that took place in that country. At a time where there is so much change going on in the world, this book was a nice refreshing breath of fresh air. I would love to write more about this book, but Im concerned that in doing so Ill give away points of the fantastic plot.

Do yourself a favour and pick this book up. It s a light read, yet will leave its mark on you. And before you know it, you'll be recommending it too.

"Then I glanced up and saw a pair of kites, red with long blue tails soaring into the sky. They danced high above the trees on the west end of the park, over the windmills, floating side by side like a pair of eyes looking down on San Francisco, the city I now called home. And suddenly Hassan's voice whispered in my head: For you a thousand times over. Hassan the harelipped kite runner."

Khaled Hosseini has made a name for himself with his popular first novel. His book cannot be put down for a long time because it is apt to rest in your thoughts until you get back to the fate and fortunes of these indelible characters.

We are introduced to Amir, and his playmate Hassan who are deep friends and spend their recreation time flying kites, playing games in the street, and getting up to the normal mischievous things boys get up to. Baba, Amir's father and Ali, Hassan's dad raises the boys themselves as they have both lost their mothers. Ali and Hassan work as servants for Baba's household but yet they are privileged to be treated just like family.

Mr. Hosseini shows us in this page-turner just how Afghanistan changes in a hurry from a place of some stability and wealth at least for Baba's household to a place of war as the Russians make they way into the country. We are made to see how the deepest of friendships can be betrayed all because of guilty consciences and convictions. The wealthy flee leaving everything included their lovely homes with their rich furniture and interiors, whilst the poor families have no choice but to remain in Afghanistan to be subjected to the wills and fancies of the Taliban.

After the war this country is unrecognizable. We see Amir leaving San Francisco where he has spent his adult years journeying back to his birthplace that holds all the memories he has carried with his all these years. These memories though disturbing have pulled him back but why? The answers are all the way through this well written first novel. May Mr. Hosseini continue to entertain us with his literary work. Bravo!!!

Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 27/02/05