waqqar memon review english

The Kite Runner: A Review

Waqar Memon

First novel by Khaled Hosseini, “The Kite Runner” is heart-breaking, unforgettable novel, actually a modern classical masterpiece. The story starts with narrative voice of Amer, protagonist of story, who has fled to United States from Afghanistan in time of in Russian occupation. It is a beautiful story of affection and attachment. The story weaves through turbulent years filled with fear, brutality, struggle and deception and the end comes with redemption. The story offers readers a walkthrough to the streets of Afghanistan and fall of Taliban rule. 

I would almost call the story a romance: Love between man and his soil, man and man, man and woman, man and child. The images that remain in my head are of dusty roads, the great alteration in Afghan faces and kites in the sky.

The novel is narrated by Amer who takes readers to Afghanistan where he introduces Hassan his childhood friend and servant. The book follows the lives of Hassan and Amer including their parents Amir’s Baba and Hassan’s Father Ali. 

The narrator provides each and every aspect of life in Afghanistan during Russian occupation and Taliban rule while unfolding how Hazaras were treated (being treated) in Afghanistan. Such narration offers readers an insight into prejudiced Taliban culture and exploitation of Hazara community. 

The whole book is full of emotions. Author attracts the readers using whirl twists. As usual not all the twists are big surprises but some of them bring tears in the reader’s eyes. It’s an easy read with carefully chosen words that gives the reader Goosebumps and is actually a page turner for classical lovers.

Author Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American writer and is best seller for his first book “The Kite Runner”. Published in 2003 by Riverhead books later “The Kite Runner” was made in to a major motion picture directed by Marc Forster that won BFCA Critics' Choice Award for Best Young Actor, Satellite Award for Best Original Score, awards. The film was also nominated for several BAFTA awards. Despite being a writer Khaled Hosseini is also founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation. Hosseini is one of the most recognised and bestselling authors. His other books are also popular and have been published in more than 70 countries and 40 million copies are sold worldwide.

“The Kite Runner” has praised by various reviewers and newspapers around the globe including The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly which also rated it in Grade A.

Some of the best quotes that fascinated and inspired the readers are:

“And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.” 

“There is only one sin. And that is theft...” 

One of my favourite quote from the book is “When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.”

This book is, amazing. Really. Well written, gripping, intense, complicated, heart-breaking and sincere. But it also seemed like it was a victim of its own ambitions and towards the end, I didn't know quite what to do with itself as the story came closer to its putative resolution which is just the thing of it, it kind of just ended aimlessly, a little unnaturally, as it was too early or too late. It is such an arresting story, yet I was disappointed that it kind of untied all that hard work and love's servant in the end, so overall the end is kind of disappointing at least for me it didn’t ended as I expected the story should end, perhaps the way Amer felt for Hassan’s son Sohrab was really full of emotions and weeps, the ending lines and Amer’s expressions when he said “For you, a thousand times over” to Sohrab was a touchy moment for me, it made me weep but despite this scene and emotions it suddenly ended there like old Hollywood movies no more continuousness.

To be honest, I consider this book as the best book that every modern classical, contemporary and booklover should read. At first I thought the book was going to cover the Afghan war and Taliban control over Afghanistan but I found myself mistaken. The book itself is about friendship, love, betrayals and how relationships change and shape our lives. The bitter reality of relationships is cleverly defined and picturised by author Hosseini. This is a page-turner read that I couldn’t put down without knowing what’s going to happen next and is a heart wrenching book but an excellent read. Because this book shows very realistic portrait of Afghan culture and conflicts, I’d also recommend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in Middle Eastern culture, or wants a more human-based rather than satellite news-based view of the world.

(The author is student of BS Part-III at Department of Media & Communication Studies, UoS, Jamshoro)