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Summary: Personal history Afghan / Muslin civilisation breaking down
Review: I read this book in bed being ill, which is about as good an opportunity to read as when on vacation. It was one of the most impressing books I ever read. Each time the story gives unexpected turns. The literary style is perfect (pardon my English, I'm not native speaker). It gave me insight in how minorities are discriminated and not allowed to have a real life. It shows the Afghan / Muslin civilisation breaking in pieces with the power vacuum being filled by Taliban and Sharia. The main person is a child who has to choose between trying to help his friend (a minority)who is being assaulted and saving his own skin. He decides to turn away. His feeling of guilt determines the sequence of events which merge with the recent events in the history of violence and dispair of Afghanistan. It is a book written in respect and with deep psychological insight.
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Summary: What a wonderful tale
Review: It has been a while since I last came across a story which reads almost like a memoir. The Kite Runner ranks amongst one of the most readable tale released this year about family/ friend betrayal, forgiveness, drift between master/ servant et al. It also allows a better understanding of the Afghan way of life- they are actually a bunch of closely-knit fun- and life-living people. The Afghan war may have taken place some 20 years ago and time may have faded some impression of the atrocities of that war. However, the description of how the commoner cope with life in Afghanistan during that war and the subsequent Taliban rule was made in simple language which actually make this book more powerful. I usually loathe reading stories on war because of excessive description of bombings, treason et al. This book looks at war from a commoner viewpoint. Are we all not glad that the Taliban has been expelled from the country. The sad thing is: it will take many years to rebuild the country, her people and her past glory.
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Summary: Truly magnificent book
Review: Amir and Hassan grow up together in Kabul in the seventies. Amir is the son of a rich and influential man, Hassan the son of his handicapped but very appreciated servant. The boys seem inseparable, but despite everything there is always the difference in standing. And then on the day of the big kite competition in Kabul something happens that turns their friendship upside down. In the beginning of the eighties Amir and his father flee to America, where Amir marries and becomes a writer. But his past with Hassan is haunting him. Then he is called to Pakistan by the dying best friend of his late father and he finally hears the secret that changes the meaning of his past. In the end he has to go back to Kabul (which is now ruled by the Taliban) to come to terms with his past and save Hassan's son. This is truly a magnificent book that grips you from the first page. It is awful and beautiful and contains every aspect of life: friendship, treason, love and a villain and gives wonderful descriptions of Central Asia and the Afghan culture as well.
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Summary: Please read this book & pass it along!
Review: I'm grateful to a member of my book club for recommending this book. In the 3 years of our club, I would rank this in the top 3 books. The novel is a beautiful, inspiring story of the triumph of love and courage in a tortured soul who watched his best friend being brutalized without stepping in to defend him & because he did not protect his friend, his friend's fate haunts him. Believing he is powerless and too cowardly to right the wrongs, he tries to bury his memories, at the expense of his self-esteem. When at last, fate brings him to a point where he can right the wrongs, he lets himself go where he never thought he would, back to his home in war torn Afghanistan. There he becomes the kind of person he has always admired because he is forced into it and slowly his conscience unfolds and helps him see what is important to him in life. In the end he risks everything he has earned in American to do the right thing. This novel is recommended to anyone who enjoys good well-researched fiction, and/or who wants to understand the history of Afghanistan in a personal way. I'll never watch the news in the same way again. It is also beautifully written, with feeling, but never, feeling forced or false.
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Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Absolutely, without a doubt, one of the best books I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Best Fiction I have read
Review: Hosseini has written a terrifically human book that touches the soul. The Kite Runner is evokative, picturesque, and gripping. I recommend this work to anyone seeking a moving tale set in one of the most war-torn regions in the world.
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Summary: An elegant, eye openning story
Review: When I started reading the Kite runner, I could not put down the book;I was glued to the book until I finished it. What a strong story of love, loyalty and betrayal.
I am form middle east and to some degree familiar with the middle east and Afghanistan situation and in my opinion Doctor Hosseini could not have done a better job relating and demonstrating what has been going on in Afghanistan in the past 30 years.In his book Dr. hosseini very skillfully inserts the Afghanistan's political events including the atrosities of Taliban with the beautiful story of Amir and Hassan. He teaches us about the culture and people of Afghanistan, even common every day conversational farsi words such as baba. I highly recommend this book and hope Dr. Hosseini continues to write more.
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Summary: A stellar first book
Review: In this spellbinding debut, Khaled Hosseini tells a story of Afghanistan's modern history through the tale of Amir, who grew up in Kabul. His best friend was Hassan, the son of the family servant and a member of a shunned ethnic minority. As the son of a prominent businessman, Amir lived a good life, and yet he was always competing for his father's attention and approval, sometimes competing against Hassan. One eventful night in 1975, Amir makes a pivotal decision, a decision that not only marks his path for years but also destroys their family unit. Eventually fleeing to America with his father, Amir thinks he's run far enough away from his past, until someone from his past resurfaces. "The Kite Runner" is about fathers and sons, about the power of redemption, about the shining hope of literature. This is a book whose lush scope is wider than the confines of its pages.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely 5 Stars!
Review: I do not rate 5 stars lightly, but this book is definitely worth it. I won't reiterate the plot since that has already been done, but The Kite Runner captivated me from page one. Mr. Hosseini's descriptions of Afghanistan and a wonderful storyline combine for one of the best books I've read in a long time. I eagerly look forward to his next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book
Review: The Kite Runner is perfectly wonderful, well-paced, emotionally wrenching, and soundly written. The language never gets literary, nor is it too simplisitic; rather it is almost conversational at times, with Americanized turns of phrase tossed in at random moments. The story is peppered with unashamed writing about love and truth, which I find to be a rare commodity in the Land of Pithy Postmodern Machinations. Read this book. Then read it again.
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