The Kite Runner

One of the most popular books of late...a Khaled Hosseini debut creation which topped the best-seller lists.

I am afraid I have read a lot!

Probably that is why I finished this novel with the disappointment of an itching-to-fight snake meeting a dull little mongoose.

Take away the backdrop of strife-ridden Afghanistan and what do you get? (In fact, if one does not take away the Taliban backdrop the tales of monstrous terror are not very different from the newspaper/channel reports.)

An almost expected story with almost anticipated twists. The familiar threads of love-hate father-son relationship... of a weakling coming to terms with his infirmity in due course of time....of the way time turns tables on mortals.... and of poetic justice bordering on melodrama...especially this last irks a little. A treble dose of destiny coming round to give each what he deserves in a word-perfect, picture-perfect manner is unnatural to say the least!

Even the ending fails to stir the reader's interest. The worst thing anyone can do to his literary creation is to make the ending predictable - which is precisely what happens here.

At one or two points I had this feeling too that the book had perhaps missed an editing effort by the author. Ah, no. That'd be too much....must be just a feeling on my part...

Too much of trashing? OopS! :-P

The book has its moments. They come while describing the local colour. The Afghan culture is so rich and beautiful, its realistic portrayal using original words from the author's native language make for one of the best USPs of The Kite Runner. Go for it if you are curious about what an Afghan has to write about Afghanistan - this curiosity made it a best-seller after all. :-)