Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This book was one of the recommendations from my friends. I was interested in this book because of the novelty factor and also because of the current war in Afghanistan.

The story is gripping, pretty fast-paced. Life events take place in quick succession, migration to US, graduation, marriage, cancer, death, etc. Several parts of the story (e.g. scene with beggar who knew Amir’s mom) didn’t and much to it.

I did not find much of a core of philosophical message or statement in the story. I had the expected to find one given the topic and the popularity of the book. The book is mostly a window into the life in a poor Asian country going through political and cultural turmoil.

There is a lot of drama in the story, it reads somewhat like a Bollywood movie (without the singsong though). I was a bit surprised to find some Urdu that I was able to understand (‘zendagi’, ‘mareez’).

The author is a skilful writer; he makes good use of writing techniques – scene transitions, managing pace of the story.

I am not very excited about reading his other books. I would give this book a three star rating.