I read the first half of the book yesterday and I have to admit that had a hard time falling asleep last night. The images and feeling invoked by the book haunted me.Having just finished the book I'm a bit at a loss for words. For now, I think the best I can do is quote from a much more eloquent reviewer from The Washington Post Book World:
"A powerful book... no frills, no nonsense, just hard, spare prose... an intimate account of family and friendship, betrayal and salvation that requires no atlas or translation to engage and enlighten us. Parts of The Kite Runner are raw and excruciating to read, yet the book in its entirety is lovingly written."
We'll be discussing the book at my book club meeting tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have figured out a way to talk about it by then.
would love to read about the discussions at you book club regarding this book. I am only half way through it, but love it so far....If you write about it in your blog, I will definatly come a looking
ReplyDeleteI had a very similar reaction to The Kite Runner. For me, it was that the brutality was SO real, SO close... that scene with the Taliban, for instance (it's near the end; you may not have gotten there yet). I mean, that was just a few years ago that that stuff was happening!
ReplyDeleteWe read it over a year ago and it still makes me uncomfortable.
Everyone in the book club loved the book, but we all agreed that it wasn't an easy book to read.
ReplyDeleteMostly we talked about how authentic the book feels and about Amir and his actions and his development through the course of the novel.
We also had an interesting discussion about the lack of female characters in the book.
I'll try to see if I can come up with some coherent comments of my own to post on the blog. I may be a wimp though and give up too easily.
I think the authentic feel has to do with the autiobiographical nature of the work. *wink*
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