The Kite Runner

I gave up reading fiction of all types a few years ago as an exercise in fasting. It worked so well, that I never really picked up fictional reading again, at least not like I did in my younger days when I could inhale a book a night, most of them probably twaddle. Now I am mostly engaged in previewing children’s literature, and catching up on hundred and fifty year old classics that I’ve missed along the way.

A few weeks ago in our local newspaper (which I was glancing at in a coffee shop, because we gave up all news media in another fasting exercise) I ran across a list of secular “must reads” for today’s literature lovers. I wrote the titles down and searched them out at our library.

One of them turned out to be a post-apocalyptic novel about cannibals and such scary stuff that apparently ended on a hopeful note for mankind. As I am sensitive to violence and suffer from night terrors, I passed.

Next on the list was a new release that currently has 463 holds. There are ten copies of the book available. I added my name to my list and I’ll probably have forgotten why I ordered the book by the time I get it.

Three times lucky, the third book looked acceptable and was available.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a coming-of-age book of a young man who lives in Afghanistan at the time of the Russian invasion. He is haunted by his betrayal of a young friend and as he grows to manhood and beyond, he tries to atone for this betrayal. He eventually returns to the country he was exiled from and finds freedom from his demons.

The book was engaging, predictable, and read like a movie. (I googled the book in cleaning up this blog entry and just learned that it has just recently been made into a movie. Imagine that.)

There is some serious violence in the book, but it is dealt with in a very subtle, though disturbing way. There was only one swear reference that I found really offensive, although I am sure that there were more. It kept me turning pages, mostly to see if my predictions were right (they were) and it ended on a hopeful note.

All in all, not a bad read, but I was disappointed. The newspaper had labelled this as the best in today’s literature. It was well written, but not spectacular. I knew exactly how it was going to end about half-way through. The information about life in Afghanistan before and after Russian and Taliban takeovers was fascinating, but not a surprise.

Why do people love this novel so much? Is this really the best that’s out there? What am I missing?

Oh well, back to previewing the Phantom Tollbooth for one of the LittlePages. I can’t even begin to predict where this one’s going…

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