The Kite Runner (Paperback)

~ Sue Hosseini Khaled/ Sherman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr (January 1, 2006)
• ASIN: B001I3XCG2
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,352 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Unsatisfying, July 10, 2009

By	Danielle George "book bug" (Seattle, wa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

oh boy where to begin....This book had the potential to be great. And I can see why some people liked. I can't see why so many people LOVED it.

The writing was good, and did create a nice and rich world of the Middle East, letting the reader peek into the lives of the characters and see both their and their country's struggles to survive and become independent. I did enjoy some of the characters, The servant and his son Hassan especially, as well as the family friend. But the glowing saintlike way the author described them prevented me from ever being able to make my own decision about liking them or not.

Ultimately, the problems in a general description were:
1) The main character/narrator of the story was so weak, and selfish, and aimless, it was almost impossible to feel compassion for him or his strife. I read many books where the character is flawed in major ways, but the story or the personality is so compelling, you still yearn to see them succeed, or at least to grow. Or if the person is a villain, or bad at least they are good at being a bad person. This character was just a waste of space, a void. I felt no connection to him at all

2) There are poignant coincidences in literature, and then there are just laughable unbelievable events that actually ruin the book. The Kite Runners ending is bloated with these.
*****************SPOILER ALERT!!*******************




So when the spineless rich boy is accosted by the nazi loving mean kid, the over lovable servant boy saves him by threatening to shoot the left eye of the nazi kid with his sling shot. Sadly, later, the overly lovable servant boy is raped by the nazi loving kid while the weak worthless rich kid watches hiding. Amazingly, years and years later, The lovable servant boy had a son, who is kidnapped by the nazi loving boy (now man)who promptly continues raping this poor family tree! It has now become a tradition to be molested by this man. The spineless rich boy(man, only in the sense of age) goes to save the servant boys child from the nazi raping, only to blunder and get severely beaten up. Miraculously (and ridiculously) the servant boys son has the SAME sling shot he inherited from his father, and saves the rich man by shooting the nazi lover IN THE SAME EYE his father had threatened to take so many years ago. wow!! AND take into account all of this happens by chance. The Nazi loving boy didnt stalk the servant to rape his son, he just kind of found him. The servant boy never told his son that he had threatened to shoot out nazi boys eyeball, it just happened to be in the kids blood i guess. who would have imagined? A variety of other things happen throughout the book to try to add meaningful points here and there, but ultimately the book becomes such a joke, that the punchline of an ending completely deflates any merit it started to build in the beginning.