5 stars for The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
I bought this book so many years ago that I cannot remember when that was. Judging from the book cover stating 10th Anniversary Edition (March 2013), I would think I bought this book after Year 2014 or thereabout. I seldom peel off the price tag of books I bought and the one on this book is still intact on the back of the book cover all these years. With the help of AI, I managed to trace the exact month and year that I bought The Kite Runner. June 2017. Wow... almost ten years ago. Gosh.. I actually waited that many years to read this book after purchasing it.
The thing is - and I believe, most if not all, booklovers can resonate with me - after I own a copy of this book, I don't see the rush in reading it. Days turned into months. And months years. There were more than a couple of times I picked up this book with the intention of reading it, but somehow or other, the mood is not right and I ended up putting the book back where it belongs. On my bookshelf. Until now.
This is a thick-set paperback, but I never felt in any way that the story is long or even boring. The plot flows smoothly from the beginning to the end, with foreboding every now and then that keeps me on my toes.
The Afghanistan that I know today, based on what I have read since 911 twin towers attacks, is definitely not what I expected in the novel. It goes to show how much the country has changed since the 1960s as detailed in this book.
The Kite Runner is a novel but the book sure reads like a memoir. I am impressed by the way the author pens the story that feels so much more like reading a memoir (his memoir) than fiction. With real historical events in Afghanistan - the July 1973 bloodless coup where King Zahir Shah was overthrown by his cousin Daoud Khan that ended the King's forty-year peaceful reign, the 1979 Soviet invasion where thousands of Afghans fleed their homes to settle in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, the Afghan Civil War following the withdrawal of Soviet Troops in 1989 where rival factions fought for control of Kabul leading to widespread destruction and civilian suffering, and the rise of the Taliban that took power in 1996, imposing strict Islamic laws, oppressing women and infamously banning cultural practices such as kite fighting - weaved among a cast of fictional characters, the author explores what it means to be human.
The author drew from his own life when writing the book. Like the protagonist Amir, the author grew up in Kabul in a priviledged household, and his family sought political asylum in the United States during the Soviet occupation. However, the various characters, personal betrayals and story development involving Amir, Hassan, Baba, Ali and Sohrab are entirely fictitious.
As with most long novels, this book has its share of themes, the invisible current that runs beneath the surface of the story, pulling characters and readers alike towards a deeper truth. It tells not only the story of Amir, a young Afghan boy from Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul, in Afghanistan, it is also a novel on friendship, kinship, social classes, guilt, lies, betrayals, secrets, regrets, forgiveness, redemption, hope, connection, acceptance and healing.
All in all, an unusual and remarkable debut novel.
