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This is a truly magnificent book! Without a doubt one of the very best stories I have ever read, not just because it is so beautifully written, but also because it is an important story. It takes place during the last thirty years of turbulent history in Afghanistan, and deals with a family and their love for each other and for their country. Author Khalid Hosseini no doubt has drawn heavily on his own life experiences to bring us this story. He was born to a wealthy family in Kabul Afghanistan and came to America as a political refugee in 1980. In The Kite Runner, Amir is the son of a prominent Pashtun family; his best friend, Hassan is the son of their servant man and a Hazara, a much hated ethnic minority. Despite their ethnic differences, Amir and Hassan are close friends throughout their childhood, both of them always mindful of Hassan's servant status. The two boys grow and learn, one of them privileged, the other deprived, both of them secure in the bosom of a prominent Pashtun family, both loved by the patriarch of that family, while the winds of change blew ceaselessly over the Afghan landscape. This story traces the lives of Amir and Baba his proud Father, and of Hassan and Ali his Father and faithful servant to Baba. In July of 1973, the people of Afghanistan woke to learn that while their King Zahir Shah was away in Italy, the Afghan monarchy had been ended in a bloodless coup led by the King's cousin Daoud Kahn. For a while there was peace in their lives but it was not to last. Before the end of that decade came first the Russians with soldiers, tanks and helicopter gun ships, and when they left, came the years of wanton destruction by the countless tribal war lords. This was to be ended, they thought mercifully, by the arrival of the Taliban, who at first brought order to the chaos, but later proved to be the most ruthless of killers. Amir and his Father left Afghanistan when the Russians arrived and came to America to settle in an Afghan community in San Francisco. However, the ties to their homeland and to the family they had left behind were to haunt them for years. One day, Amir received a telephone call from a friend in Pakistan and decided he must return. What he found there was a revelation of the awful changes which had been brought to his homeland and its people since his childhood. Don't buy this book because it is about that part of the world which changed our lives, don't buy it because it is a story about Muslims, don't even buy it because it is in a way a modern "Gone With The Wind" a story of a strong family in turbulent times. Buy it because it is a wonderful meaningful story, beautifully, sensitively written, by a man whose first language was not even our language, but who has mastered it as few of us have, and who has shown an unusual understanding of the workings of the human mind in times of great mental and physical stress.
Riveting. Fascinating. Powerful.
In a word or two, this book is riveting, fascinating, powerful. An avid reader, I found this to be the best book that I have read in recent memory. It more than lived up to all the accolades that heralded its US debut. Khaled Hosseini could not have written a more apropos novel than The Kite Runner, a story that is set against the backdrop of the recent historical events and subsequent political upheaval of Afghanistan. And while this story does cover much of the political turbulence that disrupted and destroyed the lives of so many Afghani people, this is a story, which because of its of theme friendship, betrayal and ultimate redemption, will eventually transcend time and place.
The author presents the reader with a serene, picturesque description of pre-war Afghanistan before the fall of the monarchy and the 1979 Soviet invasion. Hosseini, who portrays Afghans as a generous, gregarious people in a land where perhaps the only things more cherished than custom and tradition is loyalty and honor, has given a face to his country that until the events of September 11, 2001, have remained virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world. The deeply held mores and customs of the Afghan people that Hosseini so skillfully, yet simplistically weaves into his story also serves to enlighten the reader about Afghanistan.
Finally, it is the storyline itself that is truly memorable. The Kite Runner is ultimately a tale of friendship, betrayal and redemption - about how one person finally atones for the sins of his past. Filled with bouts of harrowing action and blissful calm, the novel verily elicits the entire spectrum of human emotions. Hosseini makes his characters quite real, very human, keeping them true to themselves, their personalities, although it is the protagonist, the primary narrator, whose character flaw is at the heart of this novel. Finally, I must admit that some parts of the story were predictable, but it does nothing to lessen the terrific tale told by Hosseini. The Kite Runner is a beautifully written story that will stay the reader long after many other stories have been read and forgotten.
Wow!
This book is absolutely riviting. It is one of the best books I have ever read. The characters will stay with me long after the book has been put down.
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