The Kite runner, by Khaled Hosseini

[Ophelia]

I can see that K Hosseini's next novel is a Booktalk official selection, I have scanned Booktalk archives and cannot find "The Kite". When I heard that the film's release had been posponed in order to ensure the young actors' safety, I remembered that the book had been sitting on my shelves, unread, for a few years. I remember thinking this looked like a story about kites .
The kites are both a realistic element of a boy's life in Kabul, and a symbol.
The book is about much, much more. [url]http://www.amazon.com/Kite-Runne ... &qid=1196859842&sr=1-1[/url]

[Mr. P]

I can see that K Hosseini's next novel is a Booktalk official selection, I have scanned Booktalk archives and cannot find "The Kite". When I heard that the film's release had been posponed in order to ensure the young actors' safety, I remembered that the book had been sitting on my shelves, unread, for a few years. I remember thinking this looked like a story about kites .
The kites are both a realistic element of a boy's life in Kabul, and a symbol.
The book is about much, much more. [url]http://www.amazon.com/Kite-Runne ... &qid=1196859842&sr=1-1[/url]

"Ensure the young actors safety?" From what?

Mr. P.

[Ophelia]

It's a long story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/movies/04kite.html

[Ophelia]

This reminds me of another (real) story, that of a 15-year-old french boy who was raped by three men in the United Arab Emirates.
One of the reasons which has made it very difficult to prosecute his aggressors is that the law in the UAE does not recognize male rape; the three men will be tried for "forced homosexuality".


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/wo ... /AIDS[url]



One more example, from literature, of (cultural?) inability to face (some) facts:

In The Prince of Tides , by Pat Conroy (1986) , the teenage male narrator is raped. When he tries to tell his mother, she answers that men cannot be raped (the family is Catholic and they live in South Carolina).


To end on a lighter note: I find it impossible to forget the novel (although I would find it hard to say whether I liked it), but I know for sure that the film by Barbara Streisand was very forgettable, and in my case instantly forgotten.

[Mr. P]

This reminds me of another (real) story, that of a 15-year-old french boy who was raped by three men in the United Arab Emirates.
One of the reasons which has made it very difficult to prosecute his aggressors is that the law in the UAE does not recognize male rape; the three men will be tried for "forced homosexuality".

...

One more example, from literature, of (cultural?) inability to face (some) facts:

In The Prince of Tides , by Pat Conroy (1986) , the teenage male narrator is raped. When he tries to tell his mother, she answers that men cannot be raped (the family is Catholic and they live in South Carolina).

This seems to speak to the other thread about the Teacher and students...about the mentality that men cannot be raped. Yet another difference between how male/female sexual roles are defined by homo sapiens.

Mr. P.

[Ophelia]

I'd like to write about the book now. I felt carried away when reading it. The style is simple, sober (even though the story may be harrowing at times; everything rings true

[WildCityWoman]

And I notice that Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides was mentioned - another book I enjoyed immensely.

I like all Conroy's stuff.

There's so many books, Ophelia - and you know how that old saying ends - so little time.

[WildCityWoman]

Amir was a coward - but he knew it and admitted it. He couldn't fight worth a damn and was afraid to stand up and defend himself or anyone else.

He 'grew' of course, as he got older.

I'm not in university, but I have taken courses in writing and reading at a collegiate and done some online courses.

I don't enjoy discussing books that way - looking for symbolism, etc.

Certainly, writers deliberately write with symbolism in mind, but I don't see it in everything I read.

I like analyzing characters in my own way - just reckoning on them as individual human beings - I don't like to be restricted by being told what you're supposed to think about and what you're not supposed to think about.

I read for pleasure, not marks.

(Although I have to pat myself on the back - I got pretty good marks in comp/lit, both in high school and courses I took as an adult. 85% in my 1996 class)

Still, it's not my thing.

At the book discussion I go to, I find some people don't like a book if there are characters in the book that they don't like - that's kinda' silly - every character in the book can't be 'nice' - you've got to have conflict.

[xxgorjess]

I felt carried away when reading it. The style is simple, sober (even though the story may be harrowing at times; everything rings true

[Ophelia]

Hello xxgorjess,

Make yourself at home at Booktalk, and go on posting on whatever threads you fancy. The Kite Runner for one would deserve a full discussion.

Would you like to write an introduction and tell us a little about yourself (in the "Introduce Yourself threads" )?

See you later on our forums i hope.