the kite runner

[araham]

Hope a comrade who has read The Kite Runner  by Khalid Huseini explain is it a work in the service of US imperialist policies in Afghanistan or something beyond that?

[Volkov]

I generally think it is just not an incredibly well written book, especially given how the author leaves out any experience of the Soviet forces being in Afghansitan, for the most part (he describes some young Russian guy wanting to rape a woman to allow them to go on...I think...and then some officer stops the young Russian soldier.). 

I think it just basically jumps from a given scene (can't remember exactly, as I have not read the book for almost three years.) to the escape to Pakistan in a truck.  It says nothing of the occupation, for the most part. 

Again, I think it is generally not a well-written book.  Perhaps it has a bit of imperialist propaganda to it, but not a whole lot.  It just basically focuses on the events in the main character's life that don't really have anything to do with the Soviet occupation.  In fact, I think it does far more description of the Taliban than the Soviet forces.

The author probably just wrote a story to capitalize on the horror of the events of 9/11, given the setting of Afghanistan (I doubt it would have been a bestseller had it been written before 9/11) and the Taliban; he was probably more interested in making a buck off of the widely discussed Taliban than badmouthing the USSR, IMO.

[InsertNameHere]

I just recently finished that book and I actually quite enjoyed it, but then again i'm rarely fussy about what I read.

[caesarscook]

My mother was reading it some months ago, which in turn made me NOT want to read it.  That was probably pretty closed-minded of me.

[InsertNameHere]

Luckily my parents don't read then. :)

[allpeopleunite]

In his other book,written from a female perspective, he idealises the soviet period as one of peace and univeral schooling and freedom for women so it's not all bad!