{"id":853,"date":"2017-10-26T15:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=853"},"modified":"2017-12-17T14:45:18","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T21:45:18","slug":"book-the-kite-runner-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/26\/book-the-kite-runner-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Kite Runner (2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1327952772l\/1250159.jpg\" alt=\"The Kite Runner\" width=\"297\" height=\"475\" \/>The Kite Runner<br \/>\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2003<br \/>\nAuthor: Khaled Hosseini<br \/>\nLength: 324 pages<\/p>\n<p>In an odd twist, I haven\u2019t actually seen the movie this book was based on before I started reading it. Sure, I was aware\u00a0<em>The Kite Runner<\/em>\u00a0was a notable book, but I knew little about it other than the peripheral knowledge that comes from seeing an occasional movie trailer. About five years ago, I found this book for cheap at a bookstore and decided to pick it up on a whim. Now that I\u2019ve finally read it, I\u2019m glad I bought it those many years ago. Unquestionably, it deserved the notoriety it received, as it is a well-written and engaging story.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll admit that there is much I don\u2019t know about the specifics of Afghanistan and Islam. This book certainly opened my eyes to a lot of things I had suspected, but could never confirm. First of all: men are awful. I\u2019m a man myself, but I\u2019m ashamed that so much of human misery is linked to the pride that distorts any of us into racists, sexists, and\/or terrorists. While it was likely just a result of correctly depicting a patriarchal culture,\u00a0<em>The Kite Runner<\/em>\u00a0shines a harsh light on the hypocrisy of a fair number of men, most of whom only ascribe to these long-held \u201cideals\u201d because it helps them maintain power and cover their insecurities.<\/p>\n<p>The emotional heart of the story lies with the relationship between Amir and Hassan. By the end of the book, while I found the \u201ctwists\u201d to be logical and almost predictable, they still elicited an emotional response from me. In fact, I almost would have thought this book to be a true story,\u00a0were it not for the plot being just slightly too convenient at times. Sure,\u00a0<em>The Kite Runner<\/em>\u00a0made me mad that such thinking existed\/still exists, but the fact that it caused me feel so strongly about it proves how effective its storytelling is.<\/p>\n<p>A modern classic filled with timeless lessons, I give\u00a0<em>The Kite Runner<\/em>\u00a04.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<\/strong><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a01\/2<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kite Runner Year: 2003 Author: Khaled Hosseini Length: 324 pages In an odd twist, I haven\u2019t actually seen the movie this book was based on before I started reading it. Sure, I was aware\u00a0The Kite Runner\u00a0was a notable book, but I knew little about it other than the peripheral knowledge that comes from seeing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,54],"tags":[41,920,55,575,919,921,8,918],"class_list":["post-853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-5-stars","category-book","tag-41","tag-afghanistan","tag-book","tag-islam","tag-khaled-hosseini","tag-patriarchy","tag-review","tag-the-kite-runner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}