The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

A Metheringham Readers' Group Review

This is the story of a man drawn inexorably to his doom by his own character, his own vices and virtues. I did not like the main character much but was interested in his situation and wanted to read on to find out what happened and what he made of life.

I felt that the author drew an accurate picture of childhood and in several places I remembered as a child having feelings similar to those I was reading about - knowing that something was wrong, but not having the words or the voice to speak up and say something about it to put it right.

Hosseini also draws a vivid picture of the Afghan community both in its homeland and in exile; this is something which I knew very little about. The low status of servants took me by surprise. The themes of loyalty and betrayal are echoed in several parts of the plot, exploring them in different and interesting ways.

The story of a war torn Afghanistan, apparently bent on destroying itself, is, of necessity, a grim read in places. I appreciated parts of the ending; it would have been easy to have a conventional, happy-ever-after type of ending and Hosseini managed to produce something satisfying and credible while sparing the reader nothing.

Several readers thought that the story took a while to get going but once you were in, the story drove along at a cracking pace.

I think I would not have read this book had it not been for the Readers' Group and would have missed a rewarding read.

This book proved to be one of our most popular books scoring an average of 9 for both enjoyment and quality of writing.

Jayne Palmer