A review of « The Kite Runner » by Khaled Hosseini

Each 4-6 weeks, Knowing Nantes's reading group meets to discuss a book, if you are interested in joining our reading group, click the link on this blog to Knowing Nantes' web site and click on the Reading Group page, there you can register your interest, and catch up on the other books we have been reading. This review is by Victoria Caldy, a Knowing Nantes member.

The Kite Runner is about Amir, a twelve-year old Afghan, who is desperate to gain the approval of his father. He resolves to win the local kite-fighting tournament and it is his loyal friend and servant Hassan who will help him.

We follow Amir growing up through a period of political upheaval, a move overseas to start a new life in America and several bereavements. Throughout all Amir is constantly seeking approval in order to find redemption for his “past crime” against Hassan.

Sadly, his story gives us only bare glimpses into the Afghan culture and way of life; the main descriptors being the odd Afghan word thrown in, as if that would satisfy one’s appetite to understand more about this country. The one exception being the Taliban occupation, which seemed so extreme that it would easily find its place well in a Hollywood movie – perhaps that’s why?

The style of the book left little to the imagination as it diligently followed a good versus evil, positive then negative storyline. Basically it felt as though the writer had recently been on a creative writing course and was possibly writing is autobiography – at least in parts.

Assef, the main “evil” character, was rather ridiculous befitting a children’s cartoon, moreover the reader doesn’t get any insight as to how or why Assef had become quite so wicked. If indeed it was solely down to his German Ayrian mother then the term cliché comes to mind - perhaps he’d had a sadistic upbringing but there was no mention of that whatsoever. Whilst our positive, goody-too shoes character, Hassan, was seemingly un-human, with no real clear motivation for his undying love nor sacrifices he made for his friend and master.

Despite this, the story still retained an element of surprise and tried to evoke emotions in the reader. On the whole, it’s an easy read and quite entertaining, even though the author doesn’t appear to know much about modern day Afghanistan. Perhaps with his second novel he might redeem himself.