This is my 7th Paperbackswap book (no. 6 was Rules of Attraction but that was more cuz I lost my own copy). There's a lot of praise for it, warranted it seems

I got to the scene that probably people remember most, what happens to Hassan the kite runner.. when he gets cornered by some bullies. It's a bit predictable but pretty gross to read through. The main character deals with it swiftly and I appreciate how he's trying to block it out of his memories

The following passages are so hard to read, when Amir has to deal with the agony of his (in)action, it was actually sadder than anything else in the book. And Hosseini piles on some stuff. I'm not sure the world needs this kind of tear inducing sadness, but if this was a skill/talent, it's all done very well

However later when Amir goes back to Afghanistan, ish is totally overdramatized. I couldn't really believe it was real anymore, it was just the author toying with me. Meeting a beggar who knew his mom? Assef showing up again? Give me a break. In retrospect the way Amir is setup to win that big kite tournament seems all fabricated as well

Yes this year we've had a big controversy on reality vs fiction. My feeling is a story should not detract by its lack of realness. If you have to stop and think about it, basically the author's lost you. Reading something like Harry Potter, you know it's fantasy but it's done in a way that you really get immersed in it. My problem with the Kite Runner is I would pick up my head from the pages and just think this is BS


Anyway, the Kite Runner has a whole thing with Persian / Arab culture so you gotta get into that. The main character Amir eventually relocates to San Francisco by way of Hayward so there's a lot of places he talks about that I actually know

It's good, coulda been really great


The novel is set for a big screen adaptation (2007), watch out