3rd Period Book Talk

By: Andrew Cottle
Class: 3rd Period. Smith
Book: The Kite Runner

Hosseini, Khalid. The Kite Runner
U.S.A.: Riverhead Books, New York, 2003
Heart
Borders
Cost: $15.00
Genre: Historical Fiction

The Kite Runner

This story is about a kid named Amir and his time spent in Afghanistan. Amir grows up with his father whom he calls Baba. He also lives with his Ali, and his son Hassan. Amir and Hassan are inseparable, but no one is to know this because Hassan is a Hazara and they are supposed to only be servants, they are the low lives in society. As Afghanistan is slowly turning over rule to the Taliban, Amir and Hassan are separated after an incident following the running of the kites. Amir and Baba flee to Pakistan and later move to California to start a new life. Amir cannot seem to forget about his life back in Afghanistan. His life seems Unkempt now that he is in an unfamiliar place without his best friend. Baba is stricken very ill and before he passes, Amir marries a lovely woman. But news comes from Afghanistan and Amir immediately flies back there to find out some things he would have rather not known.

Hosseini has a way of writing that makes it very interesting, and keeps your attention. He tells the story from the perspective of Amir. Amir loves writing and during the book Hosseini makes certain paragraphs written in italics to show that Amir has written something that may have pertained to a dream, or foreshadow what is to come. Sometimes, Hosseini puts a flashback right in the middle of the paragraph to show that Amir never forgets about Hassan. You also see that some lines show up multiple times, and that this Insinuation helps to create an image of how things were back then, and how they change throughout the story. Meaning whoever said that must have had a big impact on Amir because he keeps going back to that concept. Another thing Hosseini does is he puts actual words from the Farsi language into the text. This allows him to express a lot of the culture within his writing.

I rate this book as a heart. The well written descriptions and the uncertainty of what was going to happen next is what caught my eye, and kept me interested in this book. There always seemed to be a mystery behind what someone says. To understand what they were saying, it was necessary to know exactly what was going on in the book… at some points; I was literally getting angry while reading because of some of Amir’s decisions. I wanted him to stand up for what he though was right, instead of just doing what everyone else thought you should. You also get a really good feel of what Afghanistan was like when the Taliban took over and people were forced out of their homes and killed for no reason. Hosseini actually points out how much the media filters out and what really goes on. He also makes it interesting because he shows it in a first hand view, making you feel like you were actually there. the book is 324 pages, but it's a fast read because it constantly keeps you engaged in the story and therefore, i rate it as a heart.