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Author: Khaled Hosseini
The motivating and captivating conflict in THE KITE RUNNER is not one of race, class, religion or politics, as its author, Khaled Hosseini, would have you believe. Overshadowing these aspects in this debut is this Middle Eastern writer's literary struggle with a generally Western form --- the novel --- and a specifically American genre: the coming-of-age story.
THE KITE RUNNER is Hosseini's valiant attempt to portray the effects of a half-century's tumultuous politics on the people and culture of Afghanistan. But this search for an Afghani identity clashes with the traditional novel form, making portions of the story feel clichéd and predetermined. Where such a collision could, if handled well, enliven a book and dispel cultural preconceptions and prejudices, in THE KITE RUNNER it only reveals Hosseini's naivete and inexperience as a writer.
Organized in three parts, the novel begins with a short introductory chapter that feels entirely formulaic and superfluous, especially since the scene is repeated later. The narrator --- who is, ironically, a novelist named Amir --- gets a fateful telephone call from a man he hasn't seen in decades, which prompts more than 300 pages of soul searching.
His mind resurrecting the past, Amir recalls "crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek." You can't bury the past, he explains, "because the past claws its way out." Following the call, Amir boards a plane to the Middle East, but before he leaves American soil, he recounts his childhood in Kabul during the 1960s, leading inevitably to the horrific crime he witnesses in the alley.
Despite Hosseini's occasionally absorbing evocation of Kabul, this first section has all the trappings of a typical American coming-of-age story, right down to the narrator's whiny self-incrimination and the air of funereal nostalgia. But THE KITE RUNNER isn't even an especially compelling coming-of-age story, and its adherence to a set of rules is unfortunate considering Hosseini's characterization of Afghans as "an independent people." Describing the Afghani pastime of kite fighting, Amir remarks, "Afghans cherish custom but abhor rules. And so it was with kite fighting. The rules were simple: No rules. Fly your kite. Cut the opponents. Good luck."
Peppering his rhythmless prose with awkward plot contrivances and nonliterary oversimplifications, Hosseini includes all the familiar plotlines and the archetypal characters of the coming-of-age story --- the distant father, the neighborhood bully, the oppressed minority who retains his honor and dignity. As a result, the first act never veers from the predictable and the tedious.
THE KITE RUNNER picks up considerably in the second act, however, when the Russians invade Afghanistan in the late 1970s. After an arduous and surprisingly suspenseful escape from Kabul into Pakistan, Amir and his father immigrate to America, settling finally in San Francisco. Hosseini creates a great deal of tension and emotion from their adjustment to their new environment and its dramatically different culture, and as a result, the relationship between father and son grows increasingly dynamic and intricate --- determined more by the characters themselves than by Hosseini's loyalty to a set of literary guidelines.
Full of keen observations and fine-tuned prose, the second act of THE KITE RUNNER succeeds where the first act fails, but Hosseini is unable to sustain that focus into the final section, which picks up with the fateful telephone call from the first chapter. As Amir traverses his home country and witnesses the horrors of the ruling Taliban, THE KITE RUNNER attains the spirited intensity of a taut espionage thriller, only without the predictability that the good guys will prevail. But a glaring plot contrivance stretches the novel's credibility, and the conclusion descends into undisguised sentiment, which is intended as cathartic but comes across as scripted and manipulative.
At times THE KITE RUNNER reads as if its author is learning to write as he goes, as if this is his trial by fire. He may have found his voice as an Afghani shedding light on his country's violent past, but he never manages to find his voice as a writer.
Reviewed by Stephen M. Deusner
Price: $9.24
Buy at: Amazon.com
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Mr. Stephen M. Deusner Maybe you have right but for me a good writter is whom make me imaginate all the situacions and the caracters. I think Khaled Hosseini is a very good writter very descriptive. I really like the story and I really think "THE KITE RUNNER" is a great book.
- Jashive San Juan
Mr. Deusner, I think you are great critic, but I just had a pleasure when I was reading The Kite Runner.
- Volodymyr Kvasnyuk
I have been reading" The Kite Runner," in my class,and I think you are right when you said this writer is very predictable,and that the story feels cliche,but he's a writer that everybody can read and he has a wounderful talent , why couldn't you see that? Plus, you even said that he never manages to find his voice as a writer. Well let me tell you Mr.Dausner, The Kite Runner is a bestseller because people love the way this author express himself colorfully.
- Alida R. Erhard
I just read Mr. Deusner's review for "The Kite Runner". I'm an obsessive reader and read the book in less than 48 hrs...I enjoyed it that much! I don't know what Mr. Deusner's credentials are and I don't care.I will dismiss his all his review's in the future. Thank you, Gabriela Camm
- Gabriela Camm
The Kite Runner is one of the most beautifully written books that i've read recently. To portray characters in shades of grey and not just black or white, and so beautifully, is not something many writers can do. It is because the book is 'without the predictability that the good guys will prevail' that it is realistic and one that people can identify with. Mr Deusner, why don't you hunt for your voice as a writer, rather than make silly and untrue judgements about what is undoubtedly a brilliant book?
- Riya Kartha