Hey People, The Kite Runner :)

N

NurseLRT

Cathlete
I know a lot of people are busy, etc. But did anybody finish the Kite Runner? I finished it a while ago. It was a great book.

Lori :)
 
Lori,

I'm glad you asked this question!
I quick read it about a week ago because I thought we were discussing it in Sept??
Anyway, I LOVED it too! Am so glad I read it and glad too , to see the Author has another book coming out soon!:)

I guess this is my way of bumping your question!!;-)
 
I finished it about three weeks ago. I did like it....but I also found it a bit too manipulated in terms of its coincidental ironies. BUT, in some ways this is what Hosseini warns us will happen when Amir is praised for it by Rahim: "the most impressive thing about your story is that it has irony. You may not even know what that word means. But you will some day. It is something that some writers reach for their entire careers and never attain. You have achieved it with your first story." I think he is being self-reflexively critical of his sophisticated manipulations when Hassan delivers his naive questions:'why did he ever have to feel sad to shed tears? Couldn't he have just smelled an onion?'Hosseini implies that there is something implausible about his storytelling. Yet I also found the book helped me to learn about another culture. I am still trying to sort out the Pashtun/Hazara split in Afghan Muslim culture, and how that intersects with Shiite-Iranian, Shiite-Sunni split in Iraq, and why are the Sunnis referred to as Arabs, but the Shiites are Persians?
 
I finished it a few weeks ago and hope I can remember it well enough to participate in an intelligent discussion. How is this going to work?
 
Lori, I read it in August. What a great story. Very readable. I flew through it on my vacation. I think each of the characters represented some aspect of Afghanistan. The little boy at the end I think represented the future of Afghanistan. He left us with just the tiniest glimmer of hope for the future.

-Nancy
 
I'm still reading it. I found it a little hard to get into, but then..BAM...you're drawn in. I'll try to finish ASAP!

Tammy
 
I LOVED it!!! :) I listened to the audio book though because I do ALOT of driving and don't have much time. Like the ol' saying goes: So many books, so little time!!! :) Ain't that the truth!! I truly loved the book though. I just about lost it when the guy in the shades turned out to...well...I don't wanna give it away to those who haven't finished it yet!!:) But if you did, you know what I'm talking about!! :) AWESOME book, but also sad in alot of ways too.
 
I was going to read it on cvacation and didn't:( So this thread has motivated me to read it. I will start tonight and hopefully will be done in a couplr days.

Terri
 
re Mr. sunglasses--That's what I meant by the implausible ironies. AND the same kind of abuse to the boy as to the father, made worse by the age of the victim. Here's a question for possible discussion: Do you like the narrator, sympathize with him for much of the novel? I wondered if Hosseini didn't want us to be somewhat repelled by Amir until he is given a chance to redeem himself at the end. I initially had some difficulty getting into the novel because I really found Amir disturbing at the beginning.
 
Your irony point is excellent, garance. And your question is excellent too. Looking forward to discussing it.
-Nancy
 
Here's another especially apt irony. When Assefa initiates the punishments in the soccer stadium, he says, "Every sinner must be punished in a manner befitting his sin!" and "How shall we answer those who throw stones at the windows of God's house? WE SHALL THROW THE STONES BACK!" How perfect, then, that Sohrab delivers one perfectly aimed stone at his tormentor. This is an eye-for-an-eye justice--poetic, perfect....and maybe a little too calculated? More obvious are the convenient coincidental ironies--Andrews becomes sympathetic when Sohrab's attempted suicide reminds him of his daughter. Soraya just happens to have a relative in INS The tragic irony, though, is Oedipal and very moving--misrecognitions of fathers and sons, brothers and brothers. Missed chances, unintended and terrible mistakes.
 
I am nearly half way through this. I love it so far, so I hope the discussion keeps up. I am not certain how we planned on doing the Book Club aspect, but count me in when its time!
 
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