The popular novel The Kite runner by khalid Hosseini revolves around friendship, trust, betrayal, and redemption admist generational trauma....
BOOK REVIEW
Book: The Kite Runner
Author: Khalid Hosseini
Reviewed by Farah Jamill
The popular novel The Kite runner by khalid Hosseini revolves around friendship, trust, betrayal, and redemption admist generational trauma.
The book exempli-fies what constitutes a true literary master- piece. The main characters are two best friends, Hassan and Amir, and Hosseini does a marvellous job describing their friendship in depth.
The story starts with Amir as the narra- tor. We are given a brief description of Amir and Hassan's lives and are introduced to their fathers, who were also best friends back in the day. The author takes us back in time and gives a lengthy account of both boys' childhoods.
There's a saying that goes, "Each betrayal begins with trust". Maybe the root of betray- al was sown very early in the boys' minds, or maybe not. You have to read to find out, but this saying does come true, and we are left heartbroken when it does.
Hassan, being Amir's servant's son, set the stage for trouble from an early age. Despite being best buddies since their birth, one can sniff the smell of superiority and hierarchy that surrounds them. Another nail in the coffin is the fact that the Hazara com- munity was considered the most inferior race and hated by almost everyone in Afghanistan, and Hassan was a Hazara boy.
The novel can be a rollercoaster ride for readers as it piques curiosity and keeps you continuously anticipating more. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat, make you bite your nails, or curl your toes - what will happen next?
The Kite Runner was the first book in ages that made me feel such strong emotions, and also the first book that shredded my heart into pieces with an unex- pected twist. Hosseini definitely knew what he was doing by writing such a heart- wrenching story.
I adored the friendship between the two boys. The fact that Hosseini describes the situation of Afghanistan at that time so bril- liantly also helps develop a sense of keen understanding of the era in the reader's mind. He also gives a detailed account of the lives of these two kids. His writing will make you fall in love with the characters, and, in the end, make you crave more of his work.
However, a con for me was that even though our narrator manages to escape a cruel system, what about all those other suf- fering children that were left behind? I loved this book and Hosseini's writing, but I just wish we were given more details about this aspect; I understand that he was portraying the actual Afghanistan, but, as a reader, I just craved more.
Overall, reading this book was a won- derful journey. If you want to have a good read this summer, then this masterpiece is for you. (I would also recommend that if you have already read this book, you should check out The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.)
