Sunday, January 15, 2012

Questions for The Kite Runner Meeting

1.      What did The Kite Runner teach you about Afghanistan? About friendship? About forgiveness, redemption and love?
2.      Who suffers the most in The Kite Runner?
3.      Were you surprised to learn about the racial tension between the Pashtuns and Hazaras in Afghanistan? Can you think of any culture in the world without a history of oppression? Why do you think minority groups are oppressed so often?
4.      What did you like about Baba? Dislike about him? How was he different in the U.S. than in Afghanistan? Did he love Amir?
5.      How did learning that Hassan was Baba's son change your understanding of Baba?
6.      Why did Amir act so hatefully toward Hassan after he saw him get raped? Why did Hassan still love Amir?
7.      Did Amir ever redeem himself?
8.      What do you think happened to Sohrab?
9.      Rate The Kite Runner on a scale of one to five.

New Year New Book The Kite Runner for Feb. 9 2012 Meeting

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")
Some of the plot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible, but Hosseini has created characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runner is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust into the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping lattes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz"), Hosseini offers an honest, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt view of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon.
We plan to meet on Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at Ruby Tuesday in the Concord Mills area (off of Speedway Blvd). It is located on the side of the bridge opposite of the mall.
7780 LYLES LANE NW
CONCORD NC 28027
704-979-1741