Oh y'all. I know this book was a #1 New York Times bestseller for over two years. I know all the reviews are stellar. I know everyone thinks it's so powerful and important and real.
But I hated it. I really, really, really did not like it at all. Maybe reading it right after reading Night was not my finest decision and maybe that somehow affected my reaction, but I will not be picking up any more of Hosseini's books.
The Kite Runner was published in 2003 and is the first of Khaled Hosseini's three novels. After the success of this novel, Hosseini quit his career in medicine to become a writer full-time.
The Kite Runner is about a boy named Amir and his horrible life. Like seriously, his life is just awful from pretty much the beginning of the book to the end. When you have a story filled to the brim with child rape, dysfunctional father/son relationships, the ravages of war, profanity, senseless executions, misplaced hope in an empty religion, child suicide, and let's just throw in infertility and nearly impossible inter-country adoptions for good measure, you have a story I don't want any part of.
I've been processing this book and my reaction to it for weeks now and trying to pinpoint exactly why I am so strongly against it. Arguments that people have given me in defense of this book include the "realness" of it, the "redemptive" qualities in it, the attention it draws to a country and region that is in such constant and seemingly endless turmoil. I guess I can get where people are coming from. Maybe. A little. I wrote just last week on this very blog that I think it's important to read about the depths human depravity can reach, to educate ourselves, to remember. Knowledge is power.
But this story is fiction. And I think my intense distaste for this book stems from the knowledge that these awful things do happen in real life. So why do we want to make up more bad stories with sad, hopeless endings and read them? Do you know what I mean? There's enough horror and tragedy in this world without creating more of it. I personally didn't find any redemptive qualities in this book. It was depressing to the very last word. I can't feel good about characters who have suffered through the very worst of human wickedness and have no higher eternal hope at the end of the story. That's not a good read for me.
I read this book because of all its accolades and because friends whose literary opinions I trust recommended it to me. But I can't personally recommend it. The writing itself wasn't anything extraordinary or earth-shattering, and I was sorry I read it. Good luck to you if you decide to.
Yeah, not ever planning on reading this. So there's that. lol
ReplyDeleteI mean, obviously I support that decision. Haha!
DeleteI hated the movie. Like I was traumatized by it. Very sorry I watched it. Just awful. You did express very well the reasons why it is not a good story, in our opinions. Just read the Bible, people. Good News galore there!
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine watching a movie version of this book. I think I'd have nightmares.
Deletei think it's important to note that there's nothing wrong with using fiction to highlight a real problem/event/circumstance/etc.
ReplyDeletealso worth noting that upon publication, Housseini was hammered with questions over the whether the book was autobiographical or not; which he publicly got pretty fed up with.
i guess it's just interesting to me that so many people thought that a story that sad HAD to be true.
I can see why people would want to know how much of this book could have been autobiographical in nature. Especially if his intent in his writing is to draw attention to the plight of the Middle East and Afghanistan in particular, I understand that people want to know how realistic the story could be.
DeleteI'm with you on this one. At one point while reading it I chucked the book across the bed and sat there for ages feeling sick to my stomach. I did end up finishing it, but I was heartsick. I had read A Thousand Splendid Suns first by the same author at the recommendation of my mom, and while that one was rough in its own right, I did find it so eye-opening into another culture, and it gave me massive appreciation that I was born a woman in America in this age. I didn't feel any sort of appreciation after reading The Kite Runner. I just felt terrible.
ReplyDeleteSounds like we had a VERY similar experience with this book. I kept waiting for the redemption, but nope.
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