The Kite Runner, Khaled Housseini

"For you, a thousand times over." - The Kite Runner, Khaled Housseini 

Powerful, perspective-altering and above all thought provoking. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini was a stunning read. After months and weeks of grumbling about having no books to read that don't follow the whole boy-meets-girl storyline, I was beyond happy when my friend recommended I read this book. So one library order later, the book was clasped firmly between my hands and there it remained.

The story follows the life of a young boy named Amir and his ties with both his homeland of Afghanistan and his past that he can never quite seem to overcome. But ultimately, for me, the story was one were the overarching theme of the book was friendship and the idea that you never really can forget your past. It will always be there to tap you on the shoulder when you least expect it, or flood your mind with memories when you'd rather just forget. What Amir eventually comes to learn is that, contrary to popular belief, your past does define your future. After all, the past is a force to be reckoned with when its plagued with the savageness that is guilt and shame.

I've read reviews where people have said that 'The Kite Runner' is the first book of its kind to epitomise what life is like in Afghanistan, specifically for a western audience. Whether this is true or not, it shows perhaps why Houesseini decided to tailor this story for western ears. We can see images and news reports on the TV, we can read article after article in our morning newspapers and we can even pick up a a history book. But there's something about a story that blends breathtaking detail of life in Afghanistan as well as common themes about friends and alliances, love and loyalty. Themes that we're familiar with reading about here in the western world, but themes that are not specifically western  - they're universal.

Housseini is almost able to hide the fact that he is providing us with a brief history of Afghanistan, because he is telling us a tale of two friends. One rich, one poor. One accepted in society, the other discarded in society. Already we're reeled in to the story. But by combining features that perhaps we view as being predominantly western, he is able to show us that although war-torn Afghanistan may seem a thousand miles away from us, what they're experiencing in terms of loss and heartbreak is closer to home than we realise. I think in the midst of all the media coverage of this topic we forget that these people are just human and if it takes Housseini a fictional tale of friendship and loyalty to show us that, then perhaps it says something much deeper about us as humans.

When I was fashioning together a small synopsis of the story to give to my friend, the first thing I said was It's like 'The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas'. And of course, it's not. First of all, that book was about Nazi Germany, enough said. But what I meant was that there was only really one book I had read before 'The Kite Runner' that had left me in a daze for days just thinking. Thinking about the story, thinking about how the story related to real life events and thinking about the horrors that exist in this world. 'The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas' is the type of story that stays with you for life. Until I read 'The Kite Runner' I truly believed I would never read a book like it again that affected me that much. I was wrong.

Interestingly however, there is something both these books have in common. They both translate real-life historical events into fiction and it's these types of stories, I believe, that are the real 'horror-genres' of literature. For although what we're reading in these books is fiction, it could just as easily be reality. It's twisted, it's mind-numbing and it's petrifying. For me that's more scary than any Stephen King book I could pick up.

'The Kite Runner' had bombshell after bombshell of climaxes. Just when you thought you'd reached the root of the story, Housseini picked up his spade, unrooted you and flung you in the opposite direction. What left me gaping after I finished the book was that this was Housseini's first published novel. His first. I was amazed and I was in awe of him. To write as though you are painting with brush strokes in the reader's mind is exactly why I love reading so much.

I'm not a fan of book ratings - I prefer to talk about a book than slam a star-rating on one. I feel like ratings are a bit of a kick in the teeth for an author who's spent a portion of their life creating a story and a world for us to divulge ourselves in, only to receive a number of stars on a computer screen or scrap of paper. So I won't star rate this book, but what I will do is say that 'The Kite Runner' has to be read to be understood and for that reason you have to read and you have to understand. Housseini, I can't wait to read more of your stories - 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' here I come.

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