Not a word passes between us, not because we have nothing to say, but because we don’t have to say anything. –Khaled Hosseini

• Story: 3.5/5
• Characters: 3/5
• writing style: 4/5
• Entertainment: 4/5

STORY

The kite runner published in 2003 is a debut novel of author Khalid Hosseini. The story revolves around a boy named Amir who lives in Afghanistan and is continuously trying to cope with his evocative childhood experiences. Amir who is raised by his Baba a man of great status in his city is raised with his servant’s son hasan who is more than a servant to him and belongs to minor hazara community of Afghanistan and is ready to do anything for his agha and never leaves him alone, on the other hand Amir betrays him once because of his cowardice when he leaves hasan in the hands of some bullies who rape him, the incident shakes up hasan and snatches away from him his ceaseless smile. Amir after the incident cannot stand the very presence of hassan as his cowardice keeps flashing before his eyes and let hassan and his father leave the house. Amir is always haunted by his childhood feelings, his fears do not leave him even in California where he and his father flee after a war breaks out in kabul. Amir finds the love of his life there and some years down the line becomes an established author but a perfect family and success doesn’t release him from his childhood sins. Atonement sets in when he returns to kabul on a mission. The story is a strong one which doesn’t fail to tickle your emotions, there are many instances of violence, rape, reference to rape and even offensive language which wasn’t very much necessary. The story is based on the experiences of the narrator and protagonist Amir and his childhood memories of Kebabs, the narrow streets of kabul, story telling under the pomegranate tree and their beloved kite flying festival around which their story revolves, the story is a heart breaking one with capabilities of making you cry.

CHARACTERS

The charm and beauty of the book lies in the way the characterisation is done. Almost all the characters are beautifully written expect some which seem redundant. Initially you will hate the character of Amir the protagonist because of some sins of him but eventually when he tries to undo them his character starts making sense. The character of Hasan was of a loyal person, sometimes he was so loyal that it became hard to believe that people of this type do exist, may a times it felt a bit unrealistic. He was such a lovely person even when he was being wronged by his best friend his father Ali too was written on the same concept. If there were such people living, the world would have been a different place to live in

WRITING STYLE

Being an amazing writer Khaled hosseini is able to convey his idea through this book with vivid imagery and a good story telling techniques. the character sketch is given so beautifully that you start making an image of the person in your mind. The writing style though very easy to understand eventually become very much extensive that you feel to get bored and fails to keep you on the edge. After 25% of the story the sudden transition of the story to their escaping in a truck becomes really confusing and doesn’t make sense till many pages. All in all the writing style is good the book would have been a better one if their were less details of unnecessary events.

ENTERTAINMENT

The story doesn’t fail to entertain you. The book is an interesting one which involves lots of emotions and forces you to read it till the end, though the story loses it grip many a times in between but eventually comes back on track.

CONCLUSION

Pick up if:

• Book with emotional story is your thing
• You are a beginner and want to start reading
• Book with some lessons excite you
• You like reading intense stories

Don’t pic up if:

• You dislike reading lengthy books
• sad stories don’t amuse you
• Unnecessary attention to detail frustrates you

My verdict

I will highly recommend reading this book, there are lots of lessons that can be learned from this book. Though i liked this book but it is not a type of book that i would love to reread.

Thank you