The kite runner
If one talks about the quantum of meaning in an expression then it is said that a picture speaks more than a thousand words. For it is correctly assumed that for mind to see the depth, light, the expression the detail ..One requires more words than brush strokes. But then there is only so much that a picture can speak, and that is where the magic of words comes through. And every once in a while comes across a picture of words.. And then I wonder if words are a quantum of meaning and a picture is more than thousand then what number should one assign to picture of words; some thing that you will come across many times in 'Kite Runner'.
The novel must have generated interest considering it was an English novel by an Afghan, with its plot spanning Afghanistan from the time before the Russian invasion to Taliban. ( See how the book review by Kenneth Champeon begins ). Kite Runner is however not a political book. Khaled Hosseini talks about Taliban but only in the last leg of the book. He talks about revolution, infighting, Russian invasion not in terms of its politics but in terms of its consequences. The consequences of any violent conflict. He talks about loss, about getting uprooted and inexplicable cruelty that unleashes itself in such times. However Kite Runner is not about a land and its people under violence. At this time the scene of the novel shifts to America.
Kite Runner is a novel that is about things that you and me know of, set in a land and situations that you and me do not know of. Kite runner is about a father and a son. It is about friendship, the betrayal and the love. It is about a culture and pride trying to preserve itself in land of freedom. It is about divides of race and class. It is about guilt, punishment and redemption. It is about a lot of things. The greatness of the novel is that it is only after you are done reading the novel and think about that you realize the multitude of themes the novel touches. While you are reading all these themes beautifully blend into each other as the life of aimer...Something that you live with the book. While you are reading you don't think of guilt as a theme, instead you see the image of Hussein's trousers through amour's eyes and feel the tightening of your stomach. That is the power of Hossein as a writer; his ability to write through images...Through pictures of words. Something one does not understand until one feels the joy of Aamir running after the kite in the end.
posted by Abhishek @ 1:36 AM
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