After a long time, probably after I read 'The Life of Pi', here's another book which keeps you engaged till the end. Its a sad and tragic story of a boy from Afghanistan. Its a work of fiction by Khaled Hosseini and his first one, did this in 2003. He is from Afghanistan.
The book starts with a story of a boy in Afghanistan in a well-to-do family with access to English DVDs, good food, Mustang, a influential father and most importantly a divine friend. The book is named 'The Kite Runner'as this divine friend is a great kite runner. A kite runner is someone who runs and loots the cut kites. Amir, the rich kid and the Hasan the poor kid. The story moves easy and well in the beginning with details on Afghan life and mostly about Kabul before Russian war era.
It all funny and good-read till Khaled makes the first blow where Hasan gets badly treated by a group of rowdy boys. Wont tell you the actual thing but I was very shocked and I actually stopped reading this for a while. It seemed like a big effort to again pick the book and resume. From then on the story turns and more tragic thing start to happen. Amir gets into that guilt mode since he could not save Hasan. Then the war happens and they have to flee to Pakistan and then later to US. Amir has lost his mother very early and his Dad was never too excited about Amir for he was more of a creative kind with little or no interest in sports or more manly occupations.
The story then moves leaps n bounds with Amir finally moving to US, finishing his school there, finding a girl, comes back to Pakistan to meet an old friend of his Abba. Its a not a thick tome but Khaled has been able to add so much that you keep engaged and connected. Infact in last 100 pages, there are many new twists and discoveries. Its not only a story of a boy by now and rather takes you to society and a country. In last few episodes so much happen that you start to get nauseating at times.
The finish line has not been decorated too much, it sorts of end on a subtle note. Nothing great happens in the end, probably a realistic end to a heroic story. If you dont like reading tragedies then avoid but if you are interested in reading human relations, those secret aspects of ourselves, the innates then do read.
There is movie on the book and is getting released shortly so read the book first before watching the movie.
Overall Rating - 4/5
Friday, December 28, 2007
The Kite Runner - Book Review
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4 comments:
O looved th book so much! I have a review as well on my blog. And yes, I do think a good book's merit is to keep one attached to it till the very end. The movie is releasing very soon too.
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I'd like to believe it is fiction based on certain facts of occurrences of those times in Afghanistan.
I purposely avoided watching the movie till I was done with the book.
Have you watched the movie Nandan? Do you prefer the book? I almost always prefer books than the movies made out of them.
No, I didn't. I think it was never released here. I did get a DVD version and that kept lying on machine for a long time (probably it still is).
I haven't seen enough movies where I read the book or the vice-versa, so can't comment really. Off the mind, I remember 'The English August' and I liked both versions, same for 'Guide'.
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