Reviews - De Vliegeraar | The StoryGraph

19.2k reviews for:

De Vliegeraar

Khaled Hosseini

4.31 AVERAGE

kherrington3's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

tminter10's review against another edition

4.0

4.5/5 Stars

kraftybooks's review against another edition

5.0

This book kept me up at night. There's a line from the beginning that stuck with me the whole time: "The generation of Afghan children whose ears would know nothing but the sounds of bombs and gunfire was not yet born."
This book takes place over several decades and it brought to life for me just how tragic a history Afghanistan has. For me, my only relationship with the country is the vague history of the Soviet involvement in the country and then of course the connection with the events of September 11. Reading this book made me realize that while in some ways it was obvious that the Afghanistan of today hasn't always been like this, I've allowed my brain to only see it one way. I feel enriched after reading this book. The descriptions of life in Kabul before the Soviets and before the Taliban were so foreign, and also very welcome.
The other thing I really appreciated about this book was how it revealed my preconceived notions of what it means to be a Muslim. Being an American Christian, I find it obvious that those who call themselves Christians fall along a wide spectrum of beliefs and practices. But I've fallen too easily into a trap of viewing the practice of Islam along a very narrow band. The characters in this book are mainly nominal Muslims, which I didn't really even think existed if I'm being honest. It was a turn in perspective for me that was useful and enlightening.
The story itself - oh my - it went places I didn't expect. Friendship, loyalty, daddy issues, racism, politics, betrayal, new love - plus villainous characters, exciting last-second interventions, and heartbreaking losses filled every page. I expected the story to somehow turn entirely on the events of September 11th, which again just shows my very America-centric view of life. But while it was of course a significant event in the lives of the characters, it didn't define the narrative. For us as Americans, we experienced the terror and heartache of the Taliban directly on that day, but for the people of Afghanistan, their experiences with the Taliban ran much deeper and further back than the one horrific day. For the characters in this book, it was just another chapter in a long, long story.
In many ways, reading (again) of the Taliban's horrific reign of terror in Afghanistan left me feeling helpless (again). What is to be done? Can this beautiful country every recover to its previous place? Can it's people ever thrive again? Will there be a generation of Afghan children who will know nothing of bombs and gunfire in their streets?
A huge theme of this book is forgiveness and redemption. I sorely hope that all of us can move in that direction. I'll end the review with one more favorite quote:
"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."