Friday, April 18, 2008

second one

The review of The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini, the author of the book was born in Afghanistan, in 1965. In 1980 because of the invasion of soviet army Hosseini’s family moved to San Jose, California. And he earned a Medical degree. His first novel The Kite Runner which is base on his own experience .He has never expect the great success of the book, from now on the book has been translated into 36 languages and 600million copies have been sold the world wide . In 2006 Hosseini was named a goodwill envoy to UNHCR the United Nation’s Refugee Agency; furthermore his second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns was punished last year too.
The story started with describing the subtle relationship between two Afghanistan boys, Amir and Hassan. Although the two boys were raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, they grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a rich man and Hassan is the son of Amir’s father’s servant, but it didn’t bother them becoming the best friends. Amir and Hassan always fly kite together and Hassan is very good at kite running, that’s the main reason the novel named The Kite Runner. However Hassan believed in Amir for no reason but just the loyalty for friend and because of a promise Hassan made to Amir, He even sacrificed himself to protect Amir’s kite, in another hand Hassan ignored Hassan’s effort and looked him down. Because of Amir’s fathers’ unconsciously comparison between Hassan’s brave and Amir’s week it made Amir felt self-abased. For Amir’s jealous of the love his father gave to Hassan, Amir framed up the innocent Hassan by telling his father that Hassan has stolen his watch and forced him to leave the house. In 1980 because of the invasion of soviet army Amir’s family moved to America and started a new life. Amir thought that he has escaped his past. And yet he couldn’t leave the memory of Hassan behind him. A few years passed, Amir received a call from an acquaintance and was told that Hassan is his half blood brother and died because of guarding the house which Amir’s family left in Afghanistan. To pay back to Hassan, Amir went back to Afghanistan and searched for Hassan’s only child Sohrab left in the world, and took Soharb back to American and flew the kite with Sohrab like what Hassan and he did in the past.
The book itself is full of culture, friendship, betrayal and loyalty. For no doubt this is the best English book I have ever read, it opens a window through the history of Afghanistan and describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: there is always a way to be good again. But beyond of story I also find that it’s a typical American style heroic novel. In the novel all the bad guys are described like not only the bad guys but the evil, communist and the Taliban are all related to indecency, rape , murder meanwhile the America as described as a heaven a way out. Maybe the reason for the great success in America is because the book satisfied the American value and finally helped American find a good reason to starts the war these days.
Peng Lei

1 comment:

Marley said...

I'm really glad you enjoy this book and that you could express your ideas so passionately. Don't lose that energy.
marley