The Kite Runner is the impactful first novel by Khaled Hosseini, who also is the reader for the audiobook I had just finished listening to. It was first published in 2003, so it has been around for a while and has a film adaptation.

The story begins in Afghanistan and is told from the perspective of Amir, starting as a young boy. He is raised by a widowed father, who is a man of means and has a complicated friendship with another kid named Hassan, who is the son of a servant. Hassan is fiercely loyal to Amir, who is somewhat less fierce in his loyalty. Amir grows up riddled with guilt after he is witness to an atrocity committed against Hassan which he could have helped prevent. Hassan and his father eventually have to flee their native country and make a new life in the United States, but circumstances years in the making force Amir to face the demons of his past and finally make peace with Hassan’s legacy.

I have heard of this novel over the years and knew very little about it. I see why is has so much affection from readers in spite of some of the brutality depicted its pages, or in this case, CD tracks. Hosseini weaves in and out of a lot of different themes of friendship, betrayal, hope, redemption. He seems to understand the complexities of human existence in way that few contemporary writers seem to grasp.

It was interesting to get a glimpse of a culture of which I know very little. I don’t know if I am going to find the time to delve much deeper, but I have another audiobook by Hosseini waiting in the wings.

Anyway, Hosseini is certainly a talented writer and knows how to create a complicated, conflicted protagonist who can at times be seen as repellent while our hearts break over his plight.

There were some intriguing plot twists, although there were moments of predictable encounters. Hosseini seems to have hit this one out of the park on this debut.

Anyway, there is not much to really criticize here. It’s a tough one to get through if one is overly sensitive to violence and depravity. The story is still pretty gripping, and this is not much usual sort of reading preference.

Hosseini unsurprisingly proves himself a capable narrator at least. Audiobooks are not necessarily my preferred mode of literary consumption, but this was a worthwhile experience, and The Kite Runner is certainly a gem in the midst of what could seem to be a publishing scrapheap.

In Too Deep is a recent Jack Reacher written by Lee and Andrew Child and was a little bit of a disappointment. It wasn’t a terrible reading experience, but there have been better entries into this series.’

It starts off promising enough when Reacher awakens handcuffed to some kind of gurney with a broken wrist and not sure how he landed in this predicament. He does manage a brutal escape, meets a suspended lady detective on a mission of vengeance, and unravels a plot that may have gotten a federal agent killed.

Andrew Child is apparently slated to take over the series started by his brother. It’s possible this installment is proof that the novelty of this fictional creation has worn off.

There are still some clever and amusing moments in spite of my overall sense of being underwhelmed.

The characters were not all that compelling. The female sidekick was not all that memorable. It was more of the same in that Reacher picks up another woman with an axe to grind as an ally. Of course, they hook up at some point.

I don’t necessarily mind writers sticking to some of their traditional schticks in their series, but this was getting a little too obvious.

Anyway, there is just not much to make this any sort of stand-out. Better luck next time, guys.

The next reading indulgence will take me to the bayous of Louisiana where a particularly nasty serial killer is indulging his perverse passions with The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart.