The Kite Runner

This weekend, keeping up with my current Afghanistan fascination and my current trend of reading books a few years later than most people, I read The Kite Runner. I absolutely cannot believe that this was Khaled Hosseini’s first novel. Did I mention that Mr. Hosseini didn’t go to school to be a writer? No, he went to med school. The man is a doctor. But apparently he had some free time so he decided to whip out one of the best novels I have read in a very long time. I bet he also speaks twelve different languages and was the captain of the soccer team.

The movie is now in my Netflix queue, but I have mixed feeling about watching it. Much like the recently released Slumdog Millionaire, there was an incredible amount of media coverage surrounding The Kite Runner movie. It actually makes my brain hurt to think about films like Kite Runner and Slumdog. On one hand, of course you want movie producers to hire local actors. But the firestorm that follows successful movies often sounds like a nightmare. Exploitation, relocation, harassment, and then finally abandonment. I mean, has anyone heard about the kids from The Kite Runner since its release? I haven’t seen anything about the Slumdog actors since the Oscars either. I hope they are settling in to their new lives and adjusting to all the changes they have dealt with. Part of me argues that kids are resilient and that they are just fine. But the other part of me can’t help but think about how hard it must be to be a ‘media darling’ at such a young age and then end up being forgotten 15 minutes later. I could argue back and forth. So I guess I should just stop now.