The Kite Runner
February 27th 2008 02:09
i just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseni. Now this close to the commencement of semester 1 i sould be refreshing on foucault and reading more bronte. but a friend sent it, by mail, from melbourne so what choice did i have?
so i began. throughout the first chapters my contempt for the narrator/protagonist amir grew almost to boiling point. i just thought he was a creepy little snake who would burn anything for some attention. i juts was getting so damn irritated that all the memories of his childhood, all the grazed knees and acomplishments were tainted by his lust for supremecy over the servents son, Hassan.
the story is set in Pre - war Aphganistan and there is a beauty of that counrty that is reflected, a beauty that one could never have guessed having existed. it seems full of a fragrant culture, where custom and not rules, dominated life. Amir lives in a great manshion with his widdower father Baba, his fathers childhood servent Ali, and Ali's son Hassan. at first glance one would think that a home fool of males in an islamic state would call of themes of injustice against women or even ignorance of the gender. however this issue is fleetingly of any consequence, both the mothers of the boys haev had anty imput into their lives at all therefore they simply do not havea voice in tegh narriative. full stop.
the story slingshots through their childhood and housseini is not shy of building suspence to "the day that everything changed". At first i thought his mentioning of this was just a silly detail because it was so damn obvious! but i was wrong, and i paid for it because not only was i shocked but i was just riddled with emotion its hard to really articulate it. following this dark moment in the lives of the two young boys the plot moves to the russian occupation, to america, to first love, to life then back to afganistan, the taliban aphganistan.
the final part of the novel is by far the most meotionally challenging. This is account of the actual plot developments but more importantly becasue of the character development of Amir. No longer does he seem a selfish, arrogant fool of a person. he bnuilds into a mortally wounded human being who has awoken to his betrayals and his unkindness.
thats where i will stop with plot and character. any more would just ruin the complexity of the novel.
what is an important discussion point regarding the novel is its persistance. there is no simplicity to the story despite its main theme being childhood and innocence. the author never gives us the the opportunity to just be in the moment. in fact each time the plot reahes a moment fo clarity he inserts a small sentnce which enevitably gives you the outcome, which is never good. this style is impressive as it is unrelenting and agonising. Housseni persititenly drives us to emotional turmoil by giving us small details, deprived of subtly. yet this is his gift, this causes the story to develop in a fast, yet engagingly flourishing manner.
the writing is something i had trouble with. i kind of attribute this to the fact that i hve not read anything published after 1930 in about 2 years. after the first chapter i thought the writing was messy and overanyltical, by page 100 it was more "familiar prose" and by the middle to the end i was too engrossed in he seamless mechanics of the writing that i did not even notice its flaws. after completing the novel i realised it was written beatifully. the initial hatred of the protagonist was critical to the novel's successful progression, the little gliches were fundamental and the character development was chatagorised perfectly with apt tropelogical uses.
so the writing was good, the story perfect, and the style unremitting.
so read it. it was good.
so i began. throughout the first chapters my contempt for the narrator/protagonist amir grew almost to boiling point. i just thought he was a creepy little snake who would burn anything for some attention. i juts was getting so damn irritated that all the memories of his childhood, all the grazed knees and acomplishments were tainted by his lust for supremecy over the servents son, Hassan.
the story is set in Pre - war Aphganistan and there is a beauty of that counrty that is reflected, a beauty that one could never have guessed having existed. it seems full of a fragrant culture, where custom and not rules, dominated life. Amir lives in a great manshion with his widdower father Baba, his fathers childhood servent Ali, and Ali's son Hassan. at first glance one would think that a home fool of males in an islamic state would call of themes of injustice against women or even ignorance of the gender. however this issue is fleetingly of any consequence, both the mothers of the boys haev had anty imput into their lives at all therefore they simply do not havea voice in tegh narriative. full stop.
the story slingshots through their childhood and housseini is not shy of building suspence to "the day that everything changed". At first i thought his mentioning of this was just a silly detail because it was so damn obvious! but i was wrong, and i paid for it because not only was i shocked but i was just riddled with emotion its hard to really articulate it. following this dark moment in the lives of the two young boys the plot moves to the russian occupation, to america, to first love, to life then back to afganistan, the taliban aphganistan.
the final part of the novel is by far the most meotionally challenging. This is account of the actual plot developments but more importantly becasue of the character development of Amir. No longer does he seem a selfish, arrogant fool of a person. he bnuilds into a mortally wounded human being who has awoken to his betrayals and his unkindness.
thats where i will stop with plot and character. any more would just ruin the complexity of the novel.
what is an important discussion point regarding the novel is its persistance. there is no simplicity to the story despite its main theme being childhood and innocence. the author never gives us the the opportunity to just be in the moment. in fact each time the plot reahes a moment fo clarity he inserts a small sentnce which enevitably gives you the outcome, which is never good. this style is impressive as it is unrelenting and agonising. Housseni persititenly drives us to emotional turmoil by giving us small details, deprived of subtly. yet this is his gift, this causes the story to develop in a fast, yet engagingly flourishing manner.
the writing is something i had trouble with. i kind of attribute this to the fact that i hve not read anything published after 1930 in about 2 years. after the first chapter i thought the writing was messy and overanyltical, by page 100 it was more "familiar prose" and by the middle to the end i was too engrossed in he seamless mechanics of the writing that i did not even notice its flaws. after completing the novel i realised it was written beatifully. the initial hatred of the protagonist was critical to the novel's successful progression, the little gliches were fundamental and the character development was chatagorised perfectly with apt tropelogical uses.
so the writing was good, the story perfect, and the style unremitting.
so read it. it was good.
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