Monday Poetry Train #67

The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini

This is not a review exactly. I just finished this story not an hour ago and even if it weren't too soon to write a coherent review, I'd have to pry one eyelid open while typing one-handed. Let's just say it is so good I gave up my night computer session in order to finish it. Now I must sleep or be useless to my sister and mother tomorrow.

The reason I am featuring it on Poetry Train is that the story is like a poem in its use of image and metaphor and the nesting of symbols inside symbols. The themes of friendship, betrayal, redemption and courage could so easily become cliche in inept hands but Hosseni is deft with language and plot, with character and setting, weaving a glowing tapestry that unrolls like a prayer rug across continents, across time, across the spaces between hearts and across the space within a single heart.