The Kite Runner

It has been a very very long time since I cried reading a book. Even though a book might have a huge impact on you, it takes something really intense to make you cry. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini is one such book. It is Khaled's first book and has got rave reviews and I think it deserves all the attention. Most of the book focuses on relationships and a part of it has some really gory details of the atrocities by Taliban in Afghanistan. I can't bear to watch these things in a movie, so all I do is close my eyes and sometimes my ears and just nudge at my friend to ask 'can I look at the screen now? Is it over?'. Since that is not possible in a book, I read through it and have some vivid images in my head now..and shiver everytime I see it in my mind's eye.

The images should fade in sometime, but what will stay with me for a long time is the intensity of relationships as described by the author. I think the author has done a great job of describing the thoughts and emotions that the central character goes through...one needs to be able to understand these complex, subjective things so well to be able to put it so vividly. Many of us might have had great friends and can relate to the feelings that the author goes through, but I doubt if most of us can comprehend our own feelings so well. There are scores of books written about undying love between couples and the bond of best friends. The genuineness of the author makes me want to rate this as the best I have read on this subject. Till I was half way into the book, I actually thought it was the authors own real life story...somewhere in the middle, I doubted the authenticy of ths story and looked up some details to confirm that the story wasn't from his real life. I think the author missed reducing the intensity of thoughts over time, and that is what made me think that this wasn't real life. Time is the healer for most things. The author forgot to factor that in!