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The Kite Runner (Paperback) (平装)
by Khaled Hosseini
| Category:
Friendship, Afghanistan, Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
It is a well-told powerfully story of devotion, loyalty, betrayal and redemption between two boys; one is the son of a wealthy Afghan businessman, and the other is the son of a poor servant. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 15 items |
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Caesar M. Warrington (MSL quote), Lansdowne, PA United States
<2007-01-24 00:00>
The Kite Runner is the story of two boys growing up in the tragedy that has been the last thirty years of Afghanistan's history.
Amir, the only child of a widowed Pashtun (a Sunni Indo-Iranian people who've long dominated Afghanistan both socially and politically) businessman and landowner, is an introverted, bookish child. While Amir's father makes sure he wants for nothing he is emotionally distant, often showing his disappointment for his son's timidity. The other child is Hassan, the son of the Hazara (a Shi'a Turkic-Mongol minority who are often regarded with contempt by most Pashtuns) caretaker of Amir's family home. The two of them share an unlikely but powerful bond. Hassan is dedicated to Amir and realistically his only true friend.
Despite Hassan's deep affection and almost blind dedication for his Pashtun master's son, Amir's catered upbringing coupled with a desperate need for paternal attention and approval, causes him to resent the Hazara child, whose vibrancy and loyalty are openly admired by Amir's father. Somewhat sadistically Amir plays mindgames on Hassan. Taking advantage of Hassan's illiteracy, Amir deceives him about words and stories, often mocking him. Worse, he puts him through humiliating, abusive tests of friendship. Ultimately he betrays him one day when Hassan is mercilessly beaten and molested by a psychopathic neighborhood bully and his lackeys, whom Hassan had previously fought only to protect his friend. Amir pretends he sees nothing and runs off. His guilt over this only intensifies his resentement for the Hazara, who has always stood up and defended him. Amir now not only avoids Hassan but also frames him, making it look as if Hassan's stealing from the household. To Amir's surprise his otherwise strict and uncompromising father is willing to forgive the servant boy. Regardless, however, face has been lost. Hassan and his father leave for their Hazara homeland. Amir is now alone.
After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Amir and his father flee to Pakistan and eventually California. Here, alone in a strange land and with hardly any money left, father and son will grow closer, depending upon each other. Amir meets an Afghan girl with her own personal demons, marries her, and eventually becomes a successful novelist. When Amir hears from an old friend of his father's that Hassan and his wife were recently murdered by the Taliban, leaving behind a son named Sohrab, he is shamed with regret for what he had done to his childhood friend and feels compelled to return to Afghanistan and get Sohrab out of there.
This book hits you in so many places. Beyond its time, place and subject matter, this unforgettable story will tear at your heart because it deals with the dilemmas of timeless universals such as that of mismatched fiendships, doomed by their nature; fathers and the interaction and relationship they share with their sons; the display of conflict between individual and family; modernity vs. tradition. Most importantly it deals with regrets for the past and the yearning for redemption. It concerns people who you will learn to love and long remember because they are symbolic of all of us.
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David McCune (MSL quote), Tacoma, WA
<2007-01-24 00:00>
My wife, oldest daughter, and I came across this book as part of our summer reading program. (my wife, a Stanford grad, suggest we read the 3 books that are assigned to incoming Stanford freshmen, and this was one of them). I procrastinated for a week or more. I rapidly fell behind the pace they were setting. They were raving about it, but I confess, I put it off; it looked like a book that would require a significant emotional investment. I just didn't feel "up" for what seemed like a demanding read. I finally began it in earnest on a cross country flight, and within a chapter or two I was riveted.
Consider the challenges that author Khaled Hosseini has set for himself: his narrator, Amir, while very intelligent and articulate, is at heart an effete coward. Making a reader care about such a character is no small feat, especially when he compares so unfavorably to his larger-than-life father and his noble, long-suffering best friend Hassan. It is a measure of Hosseini's success that I found myself pulling for Amir to redeem himself.
The next challenge is painting such vivid pictures of pre-invasion and post-Taliban Afghanistan. I left the book with new appreciations for the region, its geography, its traditions, and its people. The narrative pales when it shifts to America, and I found myself eager for Amir's eventual return to the country of his youth (which is alluded to in the first chapter). As part of this, Hosseini's personalization of the Taliban not only brought new understanding of their bloodthirstiness, it also gave me an appreciation for what was lost in the process that began with the Russian invasion.
Finally, Hosseini makes his protagonist an author, ascribing great talent to him as a youth. In fact, his writing is often the only redeeming feature of Amir. Doing this without examples of that writing would be the safe thing to do, but it would feel hollow. Providing example of stories "written" as a youth risks seeming contrived at best, egotistical at worst, yet Hosseini manages this. He presents of a moving fable that seems perfectly believable as an example of the writing of a budding author.
By the end of the book, I was pulling for Amir and his family like they were old friends. I was dreading twists of fate as if real people were involved. In short, I was correct about the book. It WAS demanding a lot from me as reader. What I didn't realize was how much more it would return.
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A. Luciano (MSL quote), Lowell, MA United States
<2007-01-24 00:00>
I really liked the beginning of "The Kite Runner." It was fascinating to read about a close friendship across classes in a country where class and race were so important. Amir is the son of a wealthy Afghani man. Hassan is the son of the family's servant. The two boys had the same wet nurse at birth and they grow up together, spending nearly every day of their childhood together. However, as Amir attends school and lives in a mansion, Hassan lives with his father in a shack on the property and wakes up early to make Amir's breakfast, iron his clothes and clean up after him.
Sometimes their relationship makes Amir uncomfortable. Hassan is obviously his best friend, but he asks himself why he never refers to Hassan as his friend, and why he'll only play with him when others aren't around. At times he is uneasy with Hassan's continuous devotion, as when Hassan agrees that he would eat dirt if Amir asked.
The relationship between the boys is complex and ultimately leads to Amir allowing a horrible attack to be committed on Hassan. His overwhelming guilt at not stepping in to defend his friend leads Amir to withdraw and eventually harass Hassan and his father into moving away.
When Afghanistan becomes unstable due to war, Amir and his father move to America, where Amir still can't get rid of his guilt. Years later he is contacted by a mutual friend, who offers him a chance to right some of the wrongs of his past.
The second part of the book, in which Amir tries to make amends for what he did, was a bit contrived. I did enjoy reading how the country had changed so drastically, but the details of the plot became more and more unbelievable, which weakened my enjoyment of it
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A reader (MSL quote), Oregon
<2007-01-24 00:00>
I agree with the reviewers who have suggested that the author gave us a great beginning and then lost his way. It felt to me like Hosseini could very well see every nook and cranny of his homeland through a child's-eye view...and then lost the authenticity of the view once the story moved forward and away from there. I couldn't put the book down for the first 60 pages or so, and then my heart sank. The writing became melodramatic, sentimental and, to me, untrue. Female characters carried no weight at all. The 'harsh' element (I don't want to give it away, but readers know what I mean) felt simply like a bad plot device, running like a thread through the story but never making me understand why this 'thing' occurs so frequently to children in Afghanistan. I didn't understand what kind of relationship Amir's father had with Hassan's mother...did the 'harsh' element apply here, too? How did Amir and Baba get to America? How did Baba keep any money once he left his country? (So many unanswered questions! Such unsatisfying story development in the middle passages!). And why oh why did Hosseini drop Hassan from the story? What a disappointment, to lose that character except in hindsight. I too felt the plot contrivances strained believability, and all the more frustrating because Hosseini clearly has gifts as a novelist. He has illuminated a place and a people in such an accessible way that I listen to the nightly news a little differently now (I have no doubt that other readers do the same, and it makes us feel pretty good about ourselves). I'm grateful for that. But it becomes clear pretty quickly that for all his gifts, Hosseini is only a beginner as a novelist. His weaknesses in plotting and his taste for sentimentality and melodrama make this a particularly frustrating read. Loved it some of the time, angry at it much of the time and wished, finally, that it would end. |
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Carol D. O'Dell (MSL quote), Florida
<2007-01-24 00:00>
The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini is one of those rare books that has arrived at exactly the right time. The story begins with two boys-one of a wealthy businessnman, the other, a slave's son. Their friendhsip and loyalty, as well as their country is tested beyond endurance. The Kite Runner has much to teach and does so brillantly in story form. The metaphors of life, childhood and friendship are bound to the boy's and their beloved kite running days just before their lives take a drastic and tragic turn.
The story eventually leads to the United States, and as the violence rages in Afghanistan, so the story rages on. Beauty and violence, forgiveness and destruction fill the pages of this riveting book. It deserves every accolade it has received and will be treasured for years to come.
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1 2 Total 2 pages 15 items |
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