Oh boy, the joy of reading a good book! Felt that a couple of weeks back and still feel the glorious warmth filling me up like a good movie could or even good sex! The book in question is Khaled Hosseini’s – The Kite Runner.
I don’t read tomes which are too serious or which ponder over the philosophy of life and such. And I stay away especially from books which proclaim self improvement tips or the how-to –types. My kind of reading veers alarmingly from pithy strong romance to some good serious fiction.
I am quite partial to reviews written by my favorite critics, leaving the job of keeping abreast with the myriad books being published per month and deciding which ones are a good read, to them. So it was, that I sat down with the Kite Runner one lazy afternoon and was tugged and pulled to great heights like a kite, by the skilful writer. That it was his first book and that he could write it with such simplicity and understanding amazed me. The characters in the novel are so real that you start seeing a little of yourself in them. Khaled Hosseini, who is an Afghan living in America after receiving political asylum in 1980, through his writing, weaves a beautiful story that moves from a beautiful land that is ravaged by war and human atrocities to a country that is a hope for many lost souls, leading to a befitting ending.
You can get the jist of the story from the different reviews in the internet. I am not going to spoil anything for you. One doesn’t see a hero over here. The protagonist in fact is very particular in telling us that heroism is nowhere near his mind. But towards the end he is drawn into things which he has no control over and which he argues to himself as just being his way to assuage his guilt.
The story of Amir and Hassan will forever be etched in my mind. Amir, with his grayish character and Hassan with simplicity of character and undying loyalty to his master makes one understand what a man strives to be and what he eventually becomes due to circumstances. I can safely say it has been one novel which has touched my heart so much after perhaps The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.
I don’t read tomes which are too serious or which ponder over the philosophy of life and such. And I stay away especially from books which proclaim self improvement tips or the how-to –types. My kind of reading veers alarmingly from pithy strong romance to some good serious fiction.
I am quite partial to reviews written by my favorite critics, leaving the job of keeping abreast with the myriad books being published per month and deciding which ones are a good read, to them. So it was, that I sat down with the Kite Runner one lazy afternoon and was tugged and pulled to great heights like a kite, by the skilful writer. That it was his first book and that he could write it with such simplicity and understanding amazed me. The characters in the novel are so real that you start seeing a little of yourself in them. Khaled Hosseini, who is an Afghan living in America after receiving political asylum in 1980, through his writing, weaves a beautiful story that moves from a beautiful land that is ravaged by war and human atrocities to a country that is a hope for many lost souls, leading to a befitting ending.
You can get the jist of the story from the different reviews in the internet. I am not going to spoil anything for you. One doesn’t see a hero over here. The protagonist in fact is very particular in telling us that heroism is nowhere near his mind. But towards the end he is drawn into things which he has no control over and which he argues to himself as just being his way to assuage his guilt.
The story of Amir and Hassan will forever be etched in my mind. Amir, with his grayish character and Hassan with simplicity of character and undying loyalty to his master makes one understand what a man strives to be and what he eventually becomes due to circumstances. I can safely say it has been one novel which has touched my heart so much after perhaps The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.
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