The Kite Runner

Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 371
Rating (out of 5 stars): **** 1/2
Reviewed by: Ben and Jenn (we read it aloud together)
Description: This book tells the story of Amir, a boy who comes of age in Afghanistan in its last few years of peace. Through him we see a stark portrait of the economic, racial, and political struggles facing Afghans. The book focuses on Amir's relationship with Hassan, a boy his same age who comes from a lower caste and worships Amir as a servant. While Hassan is fiercely loyal to Amir, Amir betrays Hassan and struggles with that for the rest of the novel.
Thoughts: First of all, this book is beautifully written. Hosseini, a first-time novelist, writes with distinctive accuracy, avoiding cliché and appealing to all five senses in his descriptions. At one point he describes a certain moment smelling like turnips, dried mulberries, sour oranges, sawdust, and walnuts -- a very unusual but tangible depiction. Despite the beauty of the prose, this book is also devastating and very haunting. Since it is a story about Afghanistan we expected that, but even so the story at times hits you right between the eyes. Although we were always apprehensive to find out what happened next, we still couldn't be kept from reading. The Kite Runner wrapped us up in a world and culture we had both wanted to understand better.
Disclaimer: This book has some pretty graphic violence, and the language gets somewhat harsh, including a few "F" words.