Everyone else has read The Kite Runner already. I haven’t, perhaps because I suspected that it would break my heart. I was right. But it was worth it.
It’s about boys growing to manhood, guilt and repentance and forgiveness, honesty, brutality, family and doomed friendship. All of it unfurls against the backdrop of an Afghanistan once intact but steadily decimated by Russian occupation, then the Taliban, then the post-9/11 war. All of it has happened in my lifetime, but it has been until now at the periphery of my awareness because my knowledge of the place was so vague.
I couldn’t go back to that now if I wanted to. One novel doesn’t make me an expert, but it gives me a true and strong taste. Hosseini writes with love about an Afghanistan where deep ethnic, ideological and class divisions exist even before the turmoil of the early seventies, when the narrator of this tale is just a boy. The back of the copy I read contains a brief letter to the reader, written by publisher Celina Spiegel. What she writes is an apt description of my response, too:
Since reading this haunting novel, when I’ve seen the headlines about Afghanistan in the news, I’ve experienced the tragedy in a surprisingly personal way. I feel a connection to the land and its inhabitants that I never felt before.
It was impossible to read this book without deep grief. I couldn’t imagine pulling for any characters more than I did for these. But beyond that, I don’t have anything to add to the many thorough and detailed reviews already out there. This isn’t a book I want to analyze.
Highly recommended.
Okay, Janet, with your glowing recommendation, I might have to give this one another try.
I abhor reading about or watching graphic violence, and I couldn’t get past *that scene*.
I’m reading ‘Rooftops of Tehran’ now; it was recommended to me as being similar but less violent than ‘Kite Runner.’ I hope to have my thoughts about it up on Tuesday for the 5 Minutes for Books bookclub.
How’s that for a commercial announcement?
Have a great Thursday! We’re off to Ivy Green in a bit!
Oh, Amy. I know what you mean. For some reason the time was right for me to read this one. But I don’t think it’s obligatory reading! Other books could achieve what this one did for me — breaking through a relatively thick wall of… well, the honest word would be “indifference,” unfortunately.
I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts on ‘Tehran.’
After you have had sufficient time to recover from Kite Runner, I would recommend Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. It portrays the life of women in Afghanistan — sobering but hopeful.
I’ll keep that one in mind. But you’re right that I’ll need to recover from this one!
Your comment about recovering from a book reminds me of this quote from Sven Birkerts: “Maybe books, like pharmaceuticals, should carry warnings: ‘May induce sudden fits of hilarity,’ or ‘Provokes irreverence,’ or ‘If melancholy persists after reading, consult a qualified therapist.’” This is one of those books that really gets under the skin.
I read Kite Runner, and was glad I did. Bookseller of Kabul I appreciated as well, for giving a glimpse into Afghanistan. Later I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, also very well done. But Kite Runner is an amazing first novel–hard to beat.
Bookseller of Kabul is a title I’m not familiar with. Thanks for passing it on!
I haven’t read this, either. I kept seeing the title here and there but didn’t have a clear idea what it was about. It sounds good but sounds like something I’d have to be ready for — definitely not one to pick up casually.
Amen, Barbara!
[...] Janet @ Across the Page (The Kite Runner)37. ChristineMM (Libation a Bitter Alchemy)38. ChristineMM (Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker [...]