no point really

Over that last eight months to a year, I have become quite an avid reader (in my own right). I’ve polished off the Harry Potter series, finished all the Dan Brown books, read through several mystery/legal/thrillers (including David Baldacci and John Grisham), and most recently I’ve finished Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. For me, it was never a matter of finding the time to read for fun – although time is limited, I’ll just use a minute here or hour there to fit in some reading. It was always the fact that I couldn’t find a book to keep my interest or even spark enough interest to begin reading in the first place. That all changed in 2008, in late July, when a friend purchased the entire Harry Potter series for me. That was the beginning of a great year of reading!

As the title of this post implies, I want to review my most recently finished title: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It was a spur of the moment decision to purchase. I had just finished Chipotle with a friend and decided to walk into Barnes & Noble before heading home. I was leaving for Washington D.C. the next day and want to get a few books to read in the plane. During lunch we had been talking about books and reading and I had mentioned that I heard someone give The Kite Runner a ‘raving’ review and I wanted to read it for myself. I was walking around and didn’t see anything that sparked my interest (really, I just like the smell of books and thats why I went in there). Then, right as I was about to leave, I noticed a table piled high with The Kite Runner.

The Kite Runner is both the best written book and has the deepest and most meaningful story-arc of any book I’ve ever read. The analogies he uses are moving and practical, beyond whats usually expected from a book. Although the plot was a little harder to grasp, it was still a clear front runner in ‘favorite titles ever read.’ Kite Runner is a fiction, but is written in almost a memoir-type style. Set in pre-Russian invasion Afghanistan and wound up to directly after 9/11, the book spans the life of the main character and narrator Amir. The author does an amazing job at emotionally attaching you to every character and making you feel as if you are a part of their every day life. Out of the entire book, there was only a two page section that felt awkward and as if it was added right before printing. This was clearly not enough to ruin the book, or even the chapter, for me though. I cannot recommend any other title more highly than I would recommend The Kite Runner. Bravo to Mr. Hosseini and I gladly give him a 5 of 5 stars! For him, I’d read this book a thousand times over. (WARNING: this is not an ‘easy’ book to read. Not recommend for the ‘light,’ non-attached reader.)

After the delightful read of the book, I decided to follow if up with the movie. I was pretty excited about this movie for two reasons: 1. I had just read the book and loved it and 2. the movie was directed by the same guy as Finding Neverland, a movie I loved. These two points made me believe that it was set in stone to be a great movie. I should have remembered that 9 of 10 times, the movie is no where near the caliber of the book; Harry Potter for example. Many times, this is due to the sheer size of a book and the limited size of a movie, as well as the fact that a book can describe feelings and emotions whereas a movie can only show them.

Taking this into consideration, this was still an awful movie. It was almost as if the screenplay was rewritten and intended for those who have read the book, and only those who have read the book. There were no clear connections between each scene, most of the characters and main plot elements were completely undeveloped, and some of the most important elements to the story were completely left out of the movie. In fact, the entire reason for the book is missing from the movie. Once again, I understand that its impossible to make a 400 page book into a 2 hour movie without cutting a bunch, but there were some items left out that are completely unforgivable. I cannot though, in good conscience, give the movie a zero rating because I loved the book so much; but I also feel that 1 of 5 stars is overrating the movie.

I know a lot of you have read the book and/or seen the movie and I’d love to get your input! Let me know what you thought or if you saw the movie. I know, the next step, is of course to read A Thousand Splendid Suns, which is the next book in my stack of ‘to reads!’

Posted by Nathaniel Keifer.