After pondering long and hard, I'm going to try now to articulate just what it was about this book that sucked so much, why it has offended me so greatly, and why its popularity has enraged me even more. This book blew so much that I've been inspired to start my own website of book reviews for non-morons. So let us explore why.

First, let's deal with the writer himself. Hosseini's father worked for Western companies while in Afghasnistan. While daddy (who I am guessing, from Hosseini's tragic account of the "fictional" father, never accepts his son) worked and got wealthy, normal Afghans lived their lives. When war broke out, Hosseini's father was offered a safe position in Iran. Just before the revolution in Iran, his father was offered another job in Paris, before finally taking the family to the USA.

That's fine ... some of us are lucky in life. Others are not. What bothers me, though, is that The Kite Runner is so obviously what Hosseini WISHES had happened.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Hassan character really did exist in some form or another. Surely Hosseini had a friend/sometimes playmate/servant who was left behind while Hosseini's powerful family escaped. Surely, Hosseini feels guilty for leaving his homeland by simple privilege while the less fortunate were left behind to fight the Soviets, the Mujahideen, and then the Taliban. And surely, Hosseini wishes he were some flawed hero that didn't simply get lucky. He wishes he'd majored in English, as the protagonist does, and published fiction books instead of becoming a run-of-the-mill doctor; he wishes his father had depended upon him in the USA as happens in the book, instead of getting by just fine as a rich exile with a daddy-doesn't-love-me complex; he wishes he could go back to Afghanistan, risking his life to make ammends for his shitty and cowardly past, instead of remaining a wealthy outsider living happily in the USA.

Hosseini is simply some guy who feels guilty about having escaped what so many of his fellow countrymen couldn't, and he makes up for it in fantasy in a million ways: accepting his fallen father, marrying an "unsuitable" woman, listening to a voice from the past, saving the son of his friend he watched being raped decades before (when he was too selfish to intervene), stomaching the live stoning of a burka-clad woman and her adulterous lover, taking a beating from an old enemy/Taliban child molestor, giving $2000 to a poor smuggler who tries to feed his kids on $3 a week, and saving a 12 year-old from suicide. If Hosseini REALLY did all this, what a hero he would be. Instead, he just makes it up and calles it a novel ... and people devour this shit with tears, labeling it as "inspirational" and "moving."

What really bothers me? Besides all of the contrived and predictable plot twists?? What really disturbs me is that people not only eat this shit up, but they also call it "literature," award it, and give this guy money and license to write another book.

For lack of better words ... WTF?!!!??! Has everyone just gone STUPID?!!?!?

I could go on about how the writing sucks, especially when the author admits to using cliches (elephant in the room, dark as night, thin as a rake, et fucking c) but I won't.

Why? A couple of reasons:

1) If you liked this book, a part of you is sick, and a larger part of you is an idiot

2) I could write a 100-page thesis about how much this book blew monkey chunks, but it's not worth my time

3) This shit sells, and Hosseini, between his stupid book and movie deals, is an even richer man than he was before ... which in the end, makes him smarter than you, me, and everyone else .... He understands the market and fed it back to us. We probably deserve it.

n  n    Sad stories make good books.n  n

n  "I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975."n

There are two types of books, usually, that makes one feel like there are no words to describe the experience: They are either unbelievably detrimental, or exceptionally (and positively) impactful. Given the overall high rating, it is redundant to tell, to which category does The Kite Runner belong. I don't think there are that many books, especially fiction, that could leave such a profound effect on a reader's mind.

n  "People say that eyes are windows to the soul."n
n  "Time can be a greedy thing - sometimes it steals all the details for itself."n

What I loved the most about this book is the set of characters. Hosseini has done an amazing job developing them, which increases the emotional impact of the plot tenfold. Especially, it's remarkable how well he handled the first person protagonist, Amir. The traditional 'do wrong, then atone, conclude with happy ending' is not the way with The Kite Runner, but utilizes an attempt to direct Amir towards a path of atonement, while sticking to a more realistic ending. Had it not been for Hosseini's unique narrative, Amir's character could have turned far more contemptible. Luckily, for me, it was never the case. Many would probably love the secondary characters more, but it is important to remember that it was the protagonist's undistorted, self-criticizing account of the events that made it that way. It's not a perspective you see everyday, but I loved it.

n  "It always hurts more to have and lose than not have in the first place."n

I was perfectly satisfied with the pace of the story, including the intermittent jumps in time Hosseini used to separate the book in to a few main parts. Each of these parts had their own theme going on, while introducing an occasional twist to keep things interesting. The only minor complaint I have is about the attempt at creating a villain. Even though it introduced a tiny bit of mystery to the plot, that particular part felt a little out of harmony with the rest.

n  "That's the real Afghanistan, Agha sahib. That's the Afghanistan I know. You? You've always been a tourist here, you just didn't know it."n

The writing style is somewhat simple, but I believe most readers would be too absorbed in the plot to notice it. If anything, it felt more appropriate, reducing distractions from the flow of the story. But the plot, and the characters make up perfectly for any other shortcoming in my opinion. I wouldn't call this an emotional rollercoaster, for, the majority of the emotions include regret, disappointment, sadness, fear, anger, privation but very little happy ones. But all this helped the book become more moving. I usually don't enjoy books with sad endings but this one was definitely an exception, and worth all the heartbreak.

n  "Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."n

Before starting the book, based on almost all the reviews, I knew this was a sad story. But with fiction, if and when things get too depressing, a reader could always be consoled by the fact that this is, after all, fiction. It's easier attributing everything to being not real, and proceed from that safe spot. You're no going to find that solace here. If anything, unless we are fooling ourselves, the severity of reality has been lessened to make it more bearable. But I guess that's the whole point. That's what makes this deliver a profound reading experience. It enables all readers to understand, to empathize, and be considerate towards others. Kite Runner easily made it to my All-time-favorites and I believe this should be read by everyone.

n  n    'For you, a thousand times over!' he said. Then he smiled his Hassan smile and disappeared around the corner.n  n

Finished this book about a month ago but it's taken me this long to write a review about it because I have such mixed feelings about it. It was a deeply affecting novel, but mostly not in a good way. I really wanted to like it, but the more I think about what I didn't like about the book, the more it bothers me. I even downgraded this review from two stars to one from the time I started writing it to the time I finished.

Let's start off with the good, shall we? The writing itself was pretty good when it comes to description, in that I really felt the author's descriptions of scenes, and in terms of moving the story forward. That said, it's not particularly challenging writing to read.

The very best part of the novel is its warm depiction of the mixed culture of Afghanistan, and how it conveys the picture of a real Afghanistan as a living place, before the coup, the Soviet invasion, and above all, the Taliban and the aftermath of September 11th created a fossilized image in the US of a failed state, petrified in "backwardness" and locked in the role of a villain from central casting.

Now for the not so good.

== Spoiler Alert ==
... because I don't think I'm going to be able to complain about what I didn't like about the book without revealing major plot points. (Not to mention, some of what follows will only make sense to someone who has read the book.) So if you don't want to spoil it for yourself, read no further, here be spoilers:

My overwhelming emotion throughout the book is feeling entirely manipulated. Of course, one major reason for this is that the author's attempts at metaphor, allegory, and forshadowing are utterly ham-fisted. When he wants to make a point, he hits you over the head with it, hard -- Amir's split lip / Hassan's cleft palate comes immediately, resoundingly to mind.

But I feel manipulated beyond that. The members of the servant class in this story suffer tragic, unspeakable calamities, sometimes at the hands of our fine hero, and yet the novel seems to expect the reader to reserve her sympathies for the "wronged" privileged child, beating his breast over the emotional pain of living with the wounds he has selfishly inflicted upon others. How, why, am I supposed to feel worse for him as he feels bad about what he has done to others? Rather than feeling most sympathy and kinship for those who, through absolutely no fault of their own, must suffer, not just once or twice, but again and again?

Of course this elevation of / identification with the "wounded"/flawed hero goes hand in hand with an absolutely detestable portrayal of the members of the servant class as being at their utmost happiest when they are being their most servile and utterly subjugating their own needs, wants, desires, pleasures -- their own selves, in fact -- to the needs of their masters. (Even when they are protecting their masters from their own arrogance, heartlessness, or downright stupidity.)

I don't see how the main character, Amir, could possibly be likeable. Amir's battle with Assef, momentous as it is, is not so much him taking a stand because he feels driven to do so or feels that he must. Rather, he acts with very little self-agency at all -- he is more or less merely carried forward into events. (And, moreover, in the end it is Sohrab (Hassan again) who saves him.)

I finished the novel resenting Amir, and even more intensely resenting the author for trying to make the reader think she's supposed to care about Amir, more than about anyone else in the story.

A couple other points: I'm wondering if one theme of the novel is that there are no definitive happy endings, no single immutable moments of epiphany or redemption. Because Amir's moral "triumph", such as it is, over Assef, is so short-lived. He manages to crash horrifically only a week or two later, when he goes back on his word to Sohrab about his promise not to send him to an orphanage.

And lastly, I don't understand why Baba's hypocrisy is not more of a theme. He makes such a point of drilling into his son's head that a lie is a theft of one's right to the truth. His own hipocrisy there is a profound thing, and it's a shame the author doesn't do more with it.

Nevertheless, after all the bad things I had to say about it, I do have a couple quotes worth keeping:

"Every woman needed a husband. Even if he did silence the song in her." (p.178)

"'That's the real Afghanistan, Agha sahib. That's the Afghanistan I know. You? You've always been a tourist here, you just didn't know it.'" (p. 232)


=== UPDATE ===

I originally posted my review The Kite Runner in February 2008. Since then, my review has generated a very robust response from other Goodreads members. I have responded a couple of times in the comments section, but I realize that by now, the comments section has gotten long enough that some folks may not realize that I have added some clarifications to my review. So, although the extended reply that I posted in the comments section in October 2008 is still available in the comments section, I am re-posting it here, so people don't miss it.

I also want to offer my continued thanks to those who have read, liked, and/or comment on my review of The Kite Runner. This kind of back-and-forth conversation on books is exactly why I signed on to Goodreads! I appreciate the feedback, and look forward to engaging in more such discussion.

Finally, one more quick reply. One recent commenter asked how I could have given this book only a 1 star rating, if I was so affected by it. As I replied in the comments, the short answer is that I am guided by Goodread's prompts when I rate a book. Two stars is "It was OK;" 1 star is "I didn't like it." While I have praised a few things about the book, the bottom line is, overall, I didn't like it. -- Linda, 22 July 2011

Posted 24 October 2008:
There have been many comments to my review since I first wrote it, and I thought it might be about time for me to weigh in for a moment.

Before I get into my response, I must start off with a great thank you for all those who have felt sufficiently moved (positively or negatively) by my review to comment and respond. I appreciate all the comments, whether I agree with them or not.

First of all, I'd like to address the question of whether we're "supposed" to like Amir or not. Yes, I do realize that sometimes writers create and/or focus on a character that the reader is not meant to like. Here, though, the story is clearly meant to be about some kind of redemption -- but I found Amir so distasteful, that I simply wasn't interested in his redemption. The focus of the story was entirely on how Amir's life had been corrupted by the despicable things he'd done - when the things he'd done were entirely part and parcel of the position of power and privilege he occupied over Hassan.

Which brings me to my second point, the insufferable current of paternalism that runs throughout the story. The members of the servant and poorer classes are consistently portrayed as saintly, absurdly self-sacrificing, one-dimensional characters. Regardless of what terrible things befall them, they are shown to have nothing but their masters' interests at heart. Granted, it may be unlikely that the powerless would be overtly talking back and setting their masters straight; however, the novel gives no indication that they even have any private wishes of recrimination, or much of a private life, for that matter. Given this portrayal, it is even more difficult for me to muster any interest in Amir's suffering. But to suggest that perhaps we're misinterpreting the servants' subservient attitudes because we approach the story from a different time, place, or culture, is simply to engage in a cultural relativism borne out of -- and perpetuating -- the very same paternalism.

To clarify my point, let's look at some comparable examples from US culture. Consider any one of a huge number of films such as Driving Miss Daisy, Clara's Heart, Bagger Vance, or Ghost (all simply continuing a tradition that reaches back to Shirley Temple's days) in which noble servants or similar helpers have absolutely no concern in their lives other than making sure the wealthy people they are serving have happy, fulfilled lives -- while they themselves never seem to have any of their own personal hopes, desires, triumphs, tragedies, or even any hint of a home, family, personal, or romantic life at all. Their total happiness is bound up entirely with serving the lives of their rich counterparts. It is this quality, present throughout Hosseini's book, that bothers me most.

In the end, however, a beautifully written story could have overcome these criticisms -- or at the very least, I would have been able to temper or counter my points above with lavish praise for the writing. However, here, again, the novel falls flat. It is not particularly well-written. As some other commenters have also pointed out, the storytelling is quite heavy-handed, and the narrative suffers from implausible plot twists and uncanny coincidences, and a writing style that relies far too heavily on cliches and obvious literary devices.

I wish that I could say I liked the book more. To answer [another commenter's] question, I haven't read A Thousand Splendid Suns; I'm afraid I wasn't particularly motivated to do so after my reaction to this one. However, I do believe, as that commenter also suggests, that there is something to be gained from the debate and discussion that the book has inspired.

“There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.”

I’ve read books before with an unreliable narrator and also read accounts of cowardice and shame. Amir, the first-person protagonist and narrator from Hosseini’s 2003 novel, filled me with such disgust and loathing that I almost put the book down at 25%.

My doctor would say that Amir suffered from AWDD – Ass whooping deficiency disorder and I would enthusiastically second that diagnosis.

That said, I invite everyone to read the book and see how it all plays out.

“There is a way to be good again...”

The poet Galway Kinnell once wrote that there are some regrets we can never be rid of. He was right in so many ways. An inability to forgive ourselves for past moments of cowardice, shame and inaction are the most troubling and relentless sorrows we can face as humans wandering around on this poor earth. We can forgive others, even those who have harmed us greatly, but looking ourselves in the eye and offering absolution can be an act beyond so many of us.

I took my time getting to this book for a great many reasons and now that I have finally read it, I am so glad. This book moved me. Hosseini was able to pluck heart strings of emotion that I had thought silent and stolid. The themes of loyalty, friendship, devotion countered with betrayal, animosity and selfishness were plaintive notes played out in a literary orchestra of human sentiment.

“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”

We follow a distorted tale of mistakes and timidity towards an ultimate chance at redemption. Amir’s is an understood but still contemptuous plight of lost opportunity. Shielded by cultural, social and religious privilege, his regrettable acts of pusillanimity are displayed against the heroic and admirable examples of his steadfast friend Hassan and his intrepid father. Hosseini paints us a picture of an evolving and destabilizing Afghanistan, tortured for years with Soviet occupation and then granted only the briefest of reprieves before falling to the theocratic and brutal rule of the Taliban. Amir’s journey is one of deliverance and redemption.

Hosseini’s skill and adept description of a modern day caste system where an invisible division existed between the favored Pashtun and the disadvantaged Hazara may be a tale of Afghanistan, but this abstract and superficial distinction can also be a universal cautionary story about racism, intolerance and bigotry.

Beautifully written and told with compassion, empathy and with a skilled writer’s eye for detail and expression, this can also be a painful book to read. Not for everyone, but for those who can endure what is at times heartbreaking the reward is as magnificent as is this work.

“For you, a thousand times over” 

I found this book a failure of courage and imagination -- all the more upsetting for the author's astute sense of detail and wonderful psychological depth. But ask yourself this: if the Taliban are real humans than why are they not represented as such? No doubt we will all love the movie as well.

If you want to read a book on Afghanistan, I recommend Jason Elliot's An Unexpected Light.

Below is my complete review:
t
I started out loving this book. Hosseini is dead on target in his depiction of children's psychology, the non-contractual relationships between master and servant, and in his weaving of the threads between trauma, memory, and denial.

Further, Hosseini captures the feel of life in a Third World country. His depiction of Afghanistan confirms my own short travels in Afghanistan during the 1970s. Indeed, I was becoming ever more excited with the possibility of teaching this book in my new course on Afghanistan. But alas.

The book fails exactly where it most needs to succeed - in the depiction of the Taliban. When we do not have an archive, or the possibility of getting at the facts and narratives of a part of history, fiction can be used creatively and responsibly in order to construct something real. Take, for example, the extraordinary slave narrative written by Guy Endore -- Babouk. After years of research, Endore writes a history of a slave engaged in rebellion just prior to the Haitian Revolution.

Hosseini has the skills but not the courage nor the empathy/sympathy to portray the Taliban as historical, sociological, economic, modern creations. Discounting and trivializing his own skills, he characterizes the Taliban in the easiest way -- as simple, cartoonish, evil. He thereby does nothing to enlighten us. Worse, he panders to a sleepwalking liberal public who happily accept his vision as a seemingly authentic reflection of their own myopia.

Most everyone is satisfied: the U.S. public for having read about a country they destroyed -- feeling all the better at having disposed of evil; the publishers for their timely profit; and Hosseini for having expressed his romantic sense of loss.

At least V.S. Niapaul is honest about his hatred for his own people. Hosseini's twist is less forgivable -- he gives aide to the very people whose malice, neglect, ignorance, and misunderstanding of Afghan people is one key factor in the destruction of this beautiful land and vital people.

A failure of imagination is often the result of a failure in will, in courage, in politics. Hosseini traps himself in the politics of nostalgia.

(For a similar review with a more academic bent, please see:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2...

20 years have passed, and the troubled Afghanistan is still swaying in the storm, just like Amir's heart before redemption.

Yes, redemption.

The Kite Runner seems to be a book about Islamic country and Muslims, but I feel that Hosseini worldview, values ​​and religious views are all Westernized. Although he grew up in Afghanistan and did not move to the United States until he was probably 15, his thoughts when he wrote this novel can be said to be almost completely Westernized. In the novel, he even revealed a seemingly calm sense of superiority in the details many times.

This is very disappointing to me.

The reason is not that Hosseini tells the story from a pro-western standpoint. If the writer is a native American, I would not feel disappointed at all, because clearly, I would be a book that looks at this ancient and mysterious Eastern country from the perspective of Westerners. But Hosseini is of Afghan descent, and the work is also a debut work that has been a bestseller for many years. So I will definitely read this book with a bit of "reading for the sake of respect", hoping to get a glimpse of the daily life and behavior of the Afghan people in the war. However, the fact is that his impression of Afghanistan stopped before the age of 15 (similar to the age when Amir went abroad in the book). After moving to the States, he may have been deeply influenced by Western education. As a result, the two parts of the story gave me a strong sense of estrangement. The pure simplicity of the first half contrasted with the various tendencies and routines in the second half, resulting in a cliff-like drop in readability after entering the second half.

In my opinion, only the first half is worth reading.

The premise of novel is the friendship between the rich young master Amir and the servant's child Hassan. As a Pashtun, Amir has never regarded Hassan, a Hazara, as his best friend.

Of course, Amir was still young at that time, so he didn't think there was anything wrong with his class superiority. Although he is not the kind of bully, he still enjoys the feeling of being a 'noble'. So although Hassan always admires Amir's talent and status, Amir never stops teasing, mocking, despising and disdaining Hassan. In the end, Hassan's unprovoked and unrequited kindness to Amir is condensed into one sentence at the climax of the first half of the book: "For you, a thousand times over."

I think this sentence is the key point of this novel. The Kite Runner not only refers to Hassan, the kite chaser, but also refers to Amir who chases kites for atonement at the end of the book. Hassan's thousand times over to Amir eventually turned into Amir's thousand times over to Sohrab (Hassan's orphan). It seems that this story has a beautiful and perfect ending at the end.

But my heart knot has not been untied.

I think the reason why The Kite Runner is widely praised is that he bravely faces the cowardly, selfish, and ugly side of human nature, and then comforts himself by confessing and atonement, so that readers who feel the same can be healed. Because such a representative story will touch the pain points of many people - after all, we may have made some mistakes when we were young and ignorant or impulsive, causing harm to others, and then continued to live with regret or guilt for a certain period of time. This is the secret buried in the deepest part of our hearts that we are most reluctant to reveal. Although we know that this is a mistake, we may choose to remain silent because of face, shame to admit, fear of being blamed, or involvement in interests. However, this ugly tumor is always attached to the wall of our hearts. It is peaceful and normal on days, but it will suddenly break out one night and suffocate people.

I was not healed by this book.

Because in my opinion, not only does Amir and Hassan not have pure friendship, but Amir's motivation for atonement is more to heal himself than to save Hassan’s orphan whom he has never met.

Is there really love without reason in this world? I don't believe it. Even if it is love at first sight between men and women, they must be attracted by each other's appearance, figure, temperament, talent, personality, conversation and other conditions. Therefore, I think Hassan's loyalty to Amir is only because he is grateful for the respect and love of Amir's father as a slave.

And the plot that Amir returns to his homeland to save Hassan’s orphan with long-term guilt is even more difficult for me to accept. Not to mention that the part of saving people from the mansion of the bully in his youth seems too childish, even his decision to take the risk of returning home is driven by the author's abrupt and bloody setting of "he is your brother". There is no doubt that this "brother" stalk that came out of nowhere further weakened the already negligible "friendship" between Amir and Hassan.

The ending of this book is also bloody (you can say touching), because at least Hassan left a trace of blood in this world. Although it is a long way to heal Sohrab's spiritual trauma, fortunately there is a glimmer of hope. However, all this can only be seen by the living, so "the spirit in heaven" is just a kind of intangible carrier for the living to comfort themselves when making up for some regrets. And Hassan can no longer see all this, he has died before Amir "became a good man", and he will never get Amir's apology; even if Amir tries hard to chase, he will never get back the kite that belongs only to him and Hassan.

Therefore, although the ending described in the book seems ideal, it is actually an out-and-out tragedy. And we live in reality, so we should be more alert: many times, this world will not leave you a chance to make up for your mistakes; many mistakes, once made, will be regretted for life. The most difficult thing in life is to face your own fears. But if we can realize that some people, some things, and some risks must be bravely protected, faced, and undertaken, perhaps we will have the courage to create miracles, and perhaps we can avoid leaving regrets in the lives of ourselves and our relatives and friends.

Look closely at the kite flying freely in your heart, and never let it get lost.

2.5 / 5 stars

القراءة الأولى التي جاءت متأخرة جدا لخالد حسيني
الصوت الأفغاني الآسر
صاحب العبارة الرقيقة والوصف السلس والقدرة المتمكنة على جذب قارئه
استمتعت بهذه التجربة كثيرا وكانت خير نهاية لقراءات هذا العام

Well Well Well......

I must say the Book is a great attraction. The recent Culture (for last few decades) of Afghans has been depicted very well. Its so popular, Why? You have to go through it for that.

The matter of child abuse is also raised via this book. Racism in the society is still in existence and that is elaborated decoratively in this work. How orthodox one religion can be to its children, in their upbringing and their women, and how that ideology spoil the future of those naive children and of this world as well, observed and put on paper so fairly.

But, there were some mistakes (editorial) that I have noted while reading it. Like-wise, the floor is mentioned as Story and not Storey. Anyhow, this is a masterpiece. I wish if it had been extended to some more pages.

For me its: 4.5/5.0

عن تلك الرغبة الأبدية لدى آبائنا في أن نكون النُسخ المُصغرة منهم !!
ويظلوا مُرددين ( لم أكن هكذا أبداً ) ..
بقصد أو بدون قصد , ينسون أو يتناسون أننا نحمل دمائهم فقط
هذا لا يعني بالضرورة أن نحمل صفاتهم , طباعهم وهواياتهم
نحن لسنا استنساخ لهم , نحن فقط أبنائهم
( الأطفال ليسوا كُتب ملونة , لا يمكن أن تلونهم بألوانك المُفضلة ) هذه الخلاصة :

عن مقابلة الإحسان بالإساءة
والخير بالشر
والحب باللامبالاة
هكذا
( لأجلك ,, ألف مرة أخرى ) ..
( وفي ,, وفي ككلب ) ..

عن أفغانستان وحربهم مع روسيا
ومن ثم طالبان
ومن ثم أمريكا
( هناك كثيراً من الأطفال في أفغانستان لكن قليلاً من الطفولة ) ..

عن تجار الدين , في كُل مكان وفي كُل بقعة من الأرض
( الأشخاص الوحيدون القادرون على أكل اللحم الآن هم طالبان ) ..

وعن العنصرية أيضاً في كُل مكان
( هذا الولد الهازارا !! ) وكأن جنسك جريمة مُلاصقة لك !!

عن مئة شعور شعرت به أثناء قراءة هذه الرواية , ما بين الحب والكرة , الشفقة والجحود
هذه من الرواية القليلة التي تستطيع بأحداثها أن تعصف بمشاعرك وبك

مُفضلة جديدة تُضاف للقائمة
وكاتب مُفضل آخر , عليّ مُتابعة باقي أعماله بشغف :))

" لأجلكَ ألف مرّة وأكثر "

حسنًا هذا العمل من نوعيّة الأعمال التي لا أعرف ماذا أكتب في مراجعتي عنها ، رواية مُنهِكة ، لا تلبث إلّا أن تأخذ نفسًا عميقًا فور الانتهاء منها ، قرأتها بمعدّل أربعين صفحة يوميًا ، أردتّ أن تطول المتعة أكثر ، لكن كان لابدّ لها أن تنتهيَ، دائمًا يخونني عقلي في الكتابة عن عمل بهذه الروعة، حسنًا سأحاول لملمة شتات نفسي ، و كتابة بعض الكلمات ، علّها توفي الكاتب بعض حقّه!

ما هذا الإبداع يا ابن الأفغان!، ممكن نوصف الرواية بأنّها تحفة خالدة، كميّة مشاعر مختلِطة بشكل رهيب، الكاتب دخل في تفاصيل التفاصيل، حتمًا ستجد نفسك هنا ، ستجد نفسك في كثير من المواقف _إلّا إن كنت ترى نفسك مثاليًا_، لا أريد أن أحرقَ أحداثًا على أحد.

الحبكة قويّة جدًا ، و أودّ الإشادة بترجمة" إيهاب عبد الحميد" ، ترجمة أكثر من رائعة ، ستبقى "أفغانستان" حيّة في أذهاننا بهذا العمل.

لن تتسّع المراجعة لكتابة ما أعجبني من اقتباسات ، في النهاية هي رواية رائعة و أرشّحها لجميع عاشقي الأدب_ لو بتحبّ الوصف و التفاصيل اقرأ الرواية ، لو مبتحبّش التفاصيل أبوس ايدك لا تقرب الرواية و كفى_.
بالمناسبة شفت الفيلم و هو سيّء جدًا ، و خالد الحسيني جه روّش و ظهر في آخر مشهد ، الفيلم مريع يا إخواننا

“ قلت: هل الأمر سيء كما أسمع؟

قال: لا، أسوأ. أسوأ كثيرًا. إنهم لا يسمحون لك بأن تبقى إنسانًا”.

خالد الحسيني.

I think Khaled Hosseini has added some personal aspect of his life into the story since he is an Afghan born American writer and so is the narrator of the story.

The plot of the story is dark from the beginning since the backdrop is the tumultuous situation of war-torn Afghanistan but when it is the children who suffer so horribly, it seems to have come with a warning.

The characters have depth and their faults and dilemmas which makes them seem so real.

But the story seems to loosen its hold in events before and after the tragedies. Writing tragedy is a stronghold of Khaled Hosseini but this time and especially around the meeting and saving of the boy by the narrator was too cinematic and convenient to be real.

This book is a very good read and you'll like it more if you haven't read 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' because that book raised the standards too high and 'The Kite Runner' is a pretty downer from it.