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: Stunning, epic, extraordinary debut novel
Review: I read 2-3 books a week, and this is without a doubt my favorite of this year. No, I'll go further: it's one of maybe 8-10 books I'd choose to take to a deserted isle. I've put The Kite Runner directly into the hands of perfect strangers in book stores and said, "Read this one."
In a nutshell, Amir, the son of a well-to-do Afghani , has a best friend, Hassan, who is the illiterate child of Amir's father's long-time servant. Both children are motherless. A horrific event, a secret kept, the loss of personal honor, and a lie come between the boys. From that rift, the story moves forward as Amir and his father emigrate to California, where Amir matures, marries, and becomes a successful writer, but is still plagued by those old sins and lies. Then comes a revelation of still one more long-held secret that sets Amir on a return trip to Afghanistan (now under the worst years of Taliban dominance) to rescue Hassan's child. Author Hosseini doesn't shy from one iota of unpleasantness, and the result is a book with a perfect narrative arc, a sterling story line, unforgettable characters, and and and and... I had the opportunity to meet the author very briefly (just to shake his hand and gush a bit about his extraordinary book) at Books by the Bay in San Francisco and am delighted to report that he is charming, approachable, and thoroughly engaging. He deserves all the accolades that are coming his way.
Buy The Kite Runner. Read it. Then go back to the store and buy 2 more signed 1st editions - one to keep as an investment and one to give to your best friend.
...what a fine book!
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.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks to all reviewers
Review: A thanks to all who took the time to review this book. Based on these reviews I bought and read this most wonderful, important book.
Rating:
Summary: The Kite Runner
Review: I just finished this wonderfull book and hope lots of people read it. It is surly worth the time. I feel that this book gave me an understanding about a people I really don't know much about. I have heard about some of the tragic things that have and continue to take place in Afganistan but this book helped me see how similar people are no matter what their religion or culture. This is a story about love. About wanting love and acceptance and about the giving of love and forgiveness. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary!
Review: Amir, the son of a wealthy Pashtun businessman in Kabul, Afghanistan, spends the happiest days of his childhood in deep friendship with Hassan, the son of his father's servant who is a Hazara (an Afghan ethnic minority). Not all goes well with this friendship, however, and as the story progresses, the difficulties of maintaining that friendship have a lasting effect on both Amir's and Hassan's family.There is something about this story that makes all the characters ring true...as if they are real characters who just stepped into this novel. The story is quite captivating and, at times, gave me chills and brought me to tears. I thought I could anticipate what would happen, but each time I was surprised. What resulted was more like the experience of reading a real person's biography than of reading a novel. In addition to the story of a unique friendship, the novel explores class differences, father-son relationships, Afghani culture, modern Afghani history, and introduces terms of the language spoken in Afghanistan). This is a rich debut novel not to be missed!
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary and exceptional novel
Review: The Kite Runner is one of the best books I have read in my lifetime. Dr. Hosseini has created a masterpiece of words filled with profound characters and highly evocative descriptions of their inner thoughts, emotions, and personal experiences. This story literally made me cry on several occasions. One of the most exceptional aspects of The Kite Runner is its poignant delineation of perseverence of the human spirit. Dr. Hosseini is a gifted storyteller and writer.
Rating:
Summary: 41 people before me can't be wrong...
Review: Now I have NEVER cried while reading a book before, but for much of the time I read this elegant novel I was in tears. The characters are sketched well, the relationships believable. I just could not believe this was a first novel. The only question is Doc, how are you going to top this excellent first novel? I sure hope you try...
Rating:
Summary: I haven't cried while reading a book in a long time
Review: I began reading this book because an ex-student who has become a dear friend over the years left it on my doorstep with a note that said, " you must read this." The young woman was born in Afghanistan but is very much a child of the world and I knew it had to be special for her to be so emotional about it. As I plowed through the first fourteen chapters I did so out of my concern for her feelings as the book seemed shallow and not that well written. But from the fourteenth chapter on I was mesmerized by the flow and the beauty of the words and the intensely powerful emotions it evoked in me. I have not cried while reading a book in a long time, but this book reaches down to the deepest of human feelings; that terrible knowledge that such ugliness can exist amid the beauty of the human condition.
This is an important book and its' so immediate message needs to be heard by all.
Rating:
Summary: A review of The Kite Runner by G.A. Zikria M.D.
Review: The Kite Runner is a remarkable feat of storytelling with an intricate plot woven like the finest of Afghan carpets. Beautifully written in a unique language that brings the intangible nuances of Eastern thought and feelings to the Western reader. If not the great American novel, The Kite Runner most definitely epitomizes the experience of a new segment of immigrants in the saga of the Great American experiment. The story takes place during a sad and bleak period of Afghanistan's recent history. An experience, that was no less heinous and horrific than the Holocaust. Over two decades of human suffering and misery, tragically inflicted by humans on their fellow brethren. During times like these we are inspired by the beauty and strength of the human spirit and at the same time disgusted by its ugliness, selfishness and cruelty. The Kite Runner is the story of Hassan, a servant boy and Amir the master's son whose bond of friendship is a unique one, the intricacies and depth of which is determined by social values and personal integrity. The author's depiction of prewar and postwar Taliban Afghanistan stand in stark contrast to one another. War's legacy is the devastation of the country's landscape, and anomie resulting from its society's decay and destruction. In the midst of this existential darkness and gloom a shimmering ray of hope shines to lend the clouds their silver lining. Hope stemming from an act of decency, from striving for faith, spirituality and redemption, which in the author's own words, is " the transformation of guilt into a positive outcome".
Bravo and congratulations Dr. Hossieni for capturing the human condition so poignantly in your first endeavor in the novel genre.
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