Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Thoughts
A story about friendship, family, sacrifice, betrayal, guilt and redemption. 'The Kite Runner' is being told against the background of the fall of the Afghanistan government to the Soviet Union, and the rise of the Taliban regime.
This novel revolves around a wealthy boy named Amir who betrays his closest friend Hassan, who happens to be the son of his father's servant. When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, Amir and his father moved to the United States. However, some unfinished business ultimately draws adult Amir back to his home country, where he tries to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.
Intense. Emotional. Beautifully written. Filled with plot twists.
Khaled Hosseini definitely has a way with words.
Worth staying up a whole night reading.
This novel revolves around a wealthy boy named Amir who betrays his closest friend Hassan, who happens to be the son of his father's servant. When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, Amir and his father moved to the United States. However, some unfinished business ultimately draws adult Amir back to his home country, where he tries to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.
Intense. Emotional. Beautifully written. Filled with plot twists.
Khaled Hosseini definitely has a way with words.
Worth staying up a whole night reading.
Favourite Quotes from 'The Kite Runner;
"Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors."
"...better to get hurt with the truth than comforted with a lie."
"For you, a thousand times over."
"But all I heard - all I willed myself to hear - was the thudding of blood in my ear. All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption."
"...when he was around, the oxygen seeped out of the room. My chest tightened and I couldn't draw enough air; I'd stand there, gasping in my own little airless bubble of atmosphere. But even when he wasn't around, he was ... Everywhere I turned, I saw signs of his loyalty, his goddamn unwavering loyalty."
"He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time. I loved him in that moment, loved him more than I'd ever loved anyone, and I wanted to tell them all that I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake. I wasn't worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief."
"Do you have to always be the hero? I thought, my heart fluttering. Can't you just let it go for once? But I knew he couldn't - it wasn't in his nature. The problem was, his nature was going to get us all killed."
"After everything he'd built, planned, fought for, fretted over, dreamed of, this was the summation of his life: one disappointing son and two suitcases."
"I'd been gone long enough to forget and to be forgotten ... I thought I had forgotten about this land. But I hadn't. And, under the bony glow of a half-moon, I sensed Afghanistan humming under my feet. Maybe Afghanistan hadn't forgotten me either."
"I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills."
"Perspective was a luxury when your head was constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons."
"... I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."
"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting."
"...better to get hurt with the truth than comforted with a lie."
"For you, a thousand times over."
"But all I heard - all I willed myself to hear - was the thudding of blood in my ear. All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption."
"...when he was around, the oxygen seeped out of the room. My chest tightened and I couldn't draw enough air; I'd stand there, gasping in my own little airless bubble of atmosphere. But even when he wasn't around, he was ... Everywhere I turned, I saw signs of his loyalty, his goddamn unwavering loyalty."
"He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time. I loved him in that moment, loved him more than I'd ever loved anyone, and I wanted to tell them all that I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake. I wasn't worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief."
"Do you have to always be the hero? I thought, my heart fluttering. Can't you just let it go for once? But I knew he couldn't - it wasn't in his nature. The problem was, his nature was going to get us all killed."
"After everything he'd built, planned, fought for, fretted over, dreamed of, this was the summation of his life: one disappointing son and two suitcases."
"I'd been gone long enough to forget and to be forgotten ... I thought I had forgotten about this land. But I hadn't. And, under the bony glow of a half-moon, I sensed Afghanistan humming under my feet. Maybe Afghanistan hadn't forgotten me either."
"I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills."
"Perspective was a luxury when your head was constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons."
"... I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."
"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting."
