The Kite Runner Review

I’m not sure I can call myself a book lover. Or even a serious reader. However, I do, on occasion, read books. I think I read about 4 or 5 last year. Two of them were fiction and one was a Khaled Hosseini novel called The Kite Runner. This book spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller list but I was still quite reluctant to start it. In fact, there’s always a certain commitment that it takes for me to get into a book, I think. At some point, if it’s a good one, the book usually takes over and I can’t put it down, but I always have to push past that initial hump. That’s how it was with this one.

A young boy, Amir, growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan in the 70’s is the only child of a successful businessman. The father’s servant has been with him his whole life and the servant’s boy, Hassan, is Amir’s primary playmate. The boys’ favorite activity is kite fighting and then chasing after the downed kites. Let’s stop right there. This is about as foreign a concept to me growing up with Matchbox Cars and Fisher Price Adventure People as you’re going to get. But somehow, as Amir struggles with his own identity and fails to find courage in the most important moments, I realize that this story set in a far off land is really my story.

This is completely ridiculous, but this story reminded me of an old song on an album my brother owned (Sorry Bart, you’ve been outed), Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits. In “The Coward of the County” Tommy is a boy who never stood up for himself until one day, after years of “being yellow,” Tommy goes bats on the Gatlin boys. Anyway, I related to that song too but I never turned a barroom upside down in rage. Oh well.

When Amir moves to America with his father to escape the Soviet invasion, Hassan and his father stay in Afghanistan and have to deal with the Russians and the Taliban. One day as Amir and his wife are celebrating the release of his first novel, a phone call from an influential voice from the past leads him back to the now war-torn land of his childhood.

The movie was great. It’s not a film for kids as there are some pretty heavy themes here. But I appreciated it quite a bit. And although I did feel like it was an accurate depiction of the story, it somehow fell short. In an effort to make the story feel authentic, it’s subtitled for most of the dialog. But the book is obviously in English. I know that’s a weird thing to point out, but it made a difference to me. There were subtleties in the book when Arabic was used that made it more special to the story. Most of that is lost in the movie.

The acting was excellent and I empathized with the characters. I even cried. But I think I cried more with the book. At least I felt more with the book.

Since I’m not that much of a reader, it’s strange for me to say this. See the movie if you want to, now or on rental. But definitely read the book. It’s well worth it.

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