My first read of 2019, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, has started my reading year off right. It will be hard to surpass the emotion and twists and turns that this book took. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the story is about two young boys growing up together in Afghanistan. When one of the boys makes a mistake, it is imprinted on his life forever and that choice follows him though love, loss, and change until one day he is confronted with the opportunity to redeem himself in the name of his best friend.
*** WARNING: Some minor spoilers below!***
I was not expecting this book to hit me the way it has. It is such an incredibly powerful story. Since I did not choose this book for myself, I was apprehensive when starting it. The first major moment in the story is when the protagonist, Amir, is given a difficult choice. When his character is put to the test he succumbs to fear instead of helping his friend. After this, I found it increasingly difficult to like Amir and root for him as a character. Especially when he turns his back on his friend a second time while he is struggling with guilt. I can't put my finger on when this feeling changed for me, but it did, because before I knew it was devouring the story and emotionally invested in Amir’s success. Looking back on the book as a whole, perhaps this was the author’s intention in order to make the reader feel so strongly about Amir redeeming himself later. The book would likely have not had the same emotional payoff, without Amir’s missteps earlier in life.
Part of what makes this book so endearing is the theme of friendship. Our young characters are faced with very adult problems and it impacts their friendship drastically. I loved how the book took us across time to see how all these decisions the characters make play out and effect their relationships over time. Most importantly, you get to see how their friendship lasts throughout time. Often for example, you meet a bully and they make very harsh decisions throughout the book but you never see where those decisions land that character in life. This books seems to follow all the loose ends it gives and creates this feeling of a truly "full circle" moment.
The same day that I finished the book I watched the movie adaptation. I was really impressed with how true they stayed to the story. I recognized many of the same lines from the book to the screen, and all the themes were still there. The only negative thing that stood out to me was that the movie felt rushed. There were so many moments to try and fit in it almost seemed as if they came and went so quickly they didn't carry the same weight that they did in the book. Although, this is true of every book to film adaptation. There is never as much time to convey what is on the page on screen. But, this is also what makes the books that more rich.
Sitting here writing this I realize that this is why read. It’s for that moment when you finish a book and it was so good that you can't wait to go tell someone about. Or when you sit there thinking, that story was incredible and you’re left wishing for more pages. It’s that hunger for more. More stories and more books. The Kite Runner has fed that hunger for me, and left me wanting more.
Yours literarily,
Lauren.
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