Book Review: The Kite Runner

‘For you, a thousand times over.’

This is the best book I have read in a long time. I actually feel kind of stupid and silly for joining the Twilight bandwagon. I should be reading books like this. Curling up with this good kind of book makes me less guilty for staying up late and delaying on working for my requirements.

Khlaed Hosseini is an expert in storytelling. He has the gift of mastering its art, and he uses up his gift well.

He is a sculptor of tales.

“The Kite Runner” is written in the first person, in the character of Amir, an Afghan boy who, when war started in Afghanistan, took off to America with his father but had to come back after a couple of decades for some unsolved business.

Several themes are stirred up to make a very compelling and riveting story. Unparalleled friendship, the charge of disloyalty, a son’s desire for his father’s sympathy, a father’s longing for his son, the price of guilt – all these and more make up the spellbinding twists and turns of the novel.

Another thing that makes him a first-rate author is that he is not only a sculptor of tales, but also a weaver of words. He uses all the right words and puts them all in the right places. It is amazing how I can create in mind what he has written on paper. The depiction, the sketches he gives are vivid and crystal-clear.

This leads to his other trick of making his readers develop an out of the ordinary connection to his characters. The first night I read this, I was almost halfway through. I decided to call it a night and doze off because tears were already rolling down my cheeks. It ‘s heartbreaking. I cried twice that night. Twice. It never happened before. It’s that heartbreaking. Heartbreaking but honest and powerful.

Actually, it took me months to turn the first page over even if The Boyfriend kept on telling me how good this book is. I was quite unsure whether a story set in Afghanistan would be the sort I’d like to read. But it tuned out that I would be very much interested on knowing and studying more of the Afghan culture. It changed my perceptions of Afghan people. It was revealed to me that the Afghans are the victims themselves, and they have long been struggling to win over the power and threats of violence.

It definitely is worthy of its bestseller stamp and Hosseini deserves all the credit having written such a moving and touching book. Now I can finally dig out my DVD and watch the movie. Although I am pretty sure that I will not be as happy with the movie as I am with the book. It would not be as great when some parts, no matter how little, were cut out.

Also, I started reading his second book, “A Thousand Splendid Suns”. According to reviews, this is even better than the Kite Runner. I am yet to discover. But now, I am not as hooked as I was with the kite runner. We’ll see:)