The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

A Comparison Of Two Splendid Novels that Soar Like Kites

Anticipation is a devil. You can spend an awful lot of time expecting something good, only to be knocked off your high with something less than miraculous, and left to wallow in the sadness of something that could have been.

As much as it pains me to admit it - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini did exactly this to me. After having been blown away by A Thousand Splendid Suns, while his first book was very good, it lacked much of the shock factor possessed by his second novel. Perhaps Hosseini discovered after publishing his first novel that he could indeed get away with much more harrowing events and really reveal the truth about the state of Afghanistan.

I can't help but wonder, if I had read the Kite Runner first, maybe I would take a different view point?

It is certain that while both widely about the Afghan people and their troubled existence, both novels are very different. Whereas the kite runner is about guilt, friendship and atonement, A Thousand Splendid Suns centres much more around the atrocities of the Taliban and Soviet Forces and the effect that these two bodies had on the Afghan people, but also on the Afghan way of life.

If I had read the kite runner first, maybe I would be singing its praises for different reasons, but I feel that my judgement has been clouded by the splendour of A Thousand Splendid Suns.  Everyone I have spoken to who has read the Kite Runner sings its praises - woe betide anyone who claims that A Thousand Splendid Suns is the better of the two. But, they have not read the two.

Nevertheless,  The Kite Runner is a book that stealthily creeps up on you, and finally taps you on the shoulder in the last section of the book, to reveal to you its true colours. In the earlier pages I had a sense that something was going to happen, something momentous - and when it finally did I was underwhelmed by its occurrence.

It seems to me that Hosseini's writing  has definitely developed from one novel to the other - and although both books are pivotal in the world of historical and political fiction, A Thousand Splendid suns has much more power. The power to shock and move is contained within both books, but A Thousand Splendid Suns adds a little extra kick large enough to generate a larger feeling of astounding reverence and awe at the aptitude and boldness of a talented writer.