I classify myself as an emotional reader. And I earned myself another star to this self-ranked category. At page 71 of The Kite Runner, I found myself wiping snot and tears off my face, and that's not even a quarter of the book.
Perhaps I'm not all that much emotional... but it's undeniably true that Khaled Hosseini is a great storyteller. A vivid one, of course. There aren't many books which I've read (or reading) that makes me think aloud - 'No, don't do that', 'Oh no, no, no, no...', 'Be a man!' And this is also one of the few rare books which I bring along in my car trips. That's how great this book is.
And like any great story, it comes with the elements of 'common expectations'. There's an unsung hero, which is pretty expected; the villain, another give away; the betrayal, like any other stories. But what makes this awfully great is a dose of 'bad things happen to good people' element. I hear you groaning, "I, too, can write a novel then" But hey, hear me out.
In this story - 'bad things happen to good people'. The 'bad things' which will rouse great contempt to the characters in the book. But what is most heart wrenching is when you see a servant boy whom had pledge lifetime loyalty to his master being betrayed by his cowardice master. I felt like jumping into the story and boxing him. I can't tell you more than this. I still have a lot more to go.
Though I'm only almost finishing half the book, I can assuredly tell you that you won't want to stop reading it. And I can only imagine how much more vivid the movie would be. Cherie said that she cried a few times watching it. I can't wait...
