The Kite Runner

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Synopsis

Twelve-year-old Amir is the son of a wealthy and well-connected businessman in 1970s Afghanistan. His father has a Hazara manservant and the servant's son, Hassan, both serves Amir and is his closest friend. The two boys often play together, and dream of winning the annual kite-fighting contest. Amir is a quiet boy who enjoys reading, as well as writing his own tales of adventure, and has trouble dealing with the local bullies, while Hassan has the heart of a lion, facing down the bullies to protect Amir. On the day of the kite-fighting competition, Amir gives his best performance and Hassan, who is known as the best kite-runner around, goes after the last kite cut as the ultimate prize for his friend. When he doesn't come back, Amir goes looking for him and witnesses the bullies doing the unthinkable, but he's too afraid to intervene. Later, Amir instead takes out his guilt and anger about his own actions against Hassan, which leads to the other boy and his father leaving. Several years later, after the Russians invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee, making a new life for themselves in America. Just when Amir has found some measure of success and happiness, a call from his father's old business partner draws him back to an Afghanistan now under Taliban rule, where long-held family secrets are revealed, challenging him to find the courage he lacked as a child and sending him on a dangerous journey in search of redemption.

Review

A stand-alone contemporary novel, The Kite Runner was Khaled Hosseini's impressive debut book. It's a saga that spans a quarter-century and that is mostly about the main character of Amir and his journey, which makes it a little harder to synopsize, but I'll do my best. The book begins when Amir is just a boy. He's the son of a wealthy and well-connected businessman, living in an affluent neighborhood in Kabul, whose mother died in childbirth. They have two Hazara servants, Ali, who grew up alongside Amir's father and is his most trusted right hand man, and Ali's son, Hassan, who tends to Amir. Amir and Hassan often play with each other, and much like their fathers, are two motherless boys growing up together. Amir's father, who he calls Baba, treats Hassan in such a way that Amir is sometimes a little jealous of him, and because Hassan is a servant and a Hazara (an ethnic minority), Amir tries to distance himself from him, even though they are technically the best of friends. The pair are sometimes bullied by neighborhood thugs, one in particular who is a real piece of work, but Hassan, who is masterful with a slingshot, always bravely protects Amir. The two also enjoy the annual kite fighting contest, in which Hassan is known as the best kite runner (boys who chase after kites that have been cut) in the city. When Amir is twelve years old in 1975, he wins the contest and Hassan goes after the last kite to be cut as the ultimate prize. However, Hassan doesn't come back right away, and when Amir finds him, he's with the bullies who've cornered him in an alley. Amir witnesses them committing the ultimate act of abuse against his life-long friend, but he's too afraid to intervene. Afterward, Amir is so wracked with guilt that he can't bear to be around Hassan who is a constant reminder of his own cowardice, so he ends up making a rather cruel and fateful decision that drives the other boy and his father away. Eventually Amir and Baba become refugees, fleeing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and resettling in the U. S. Many years later, Baba's former business partner, Rahim Kahn, contacts Amir, asking him to come visit him in Pakistan, where he reveals long-held family secrets and makes a request of Amir that will test him in ways he never would have imagined and calls on him to find the courage he lacked as a child and risk everything in order to find redemption.

Amir is the first-person narrator of the book, so the story is all about his journey. Even at a young age, he's a complex and nuanced character. I think a part of him loves Hassan as a friend, but because of society's dictates and the bullies' prejudices, he's also keenly aware of the differences in their stations and Hassan's status as a second class citizen due to his ethnicity. Because of this, Amir keeps some walls up between them, but I think what really prevents him from fully embracing Hassan is his jealousy. Amir has a complicated and sometimes fraught relationship with his father and when Baba treats Hassan the way Amir wants to be treated, it makes him envious. Amir's feelings in turn cause him to sometimes be unkind to Hassan even though Hassan is nothing but loyal and loving toward Amir. In fact, Hassan risks himself to protect Amir from the bullies, but when Amir fails to do the same for Hassan, and witnesses the bullies doing the unthinkable, he's wracked with guilt and shame over his own cowardice. Afterward, their relationship is forever changed. Amir can barely even look at Hassan and does some things to him that are not easy to read about because it only seems to add insult to injury. A part of me had a hard time liking Amir at this point, but then I had to remind myself that he was only twelve and a child that age doesn't really have the capacity to process something like what happened in a logical way. It also makes him into a person in need of absolution. When he learns the truth from Rahim, Amir is still reluctant, knowing that he'd probably be risking everything, including his life, to return to Afghanistan, but deep down he knows he couldn't live with himself if he didn't. This opens the door for a powerful redemption arc, at the end of which, I knew Amir was a better person for it. He'd faced down his demons and won, and in doing so, helped another human being who desperately needed him.

The Kite Runner is a beautifully written piece of literature, so great, in fact, that I can hardly believe it was Khaled Hosseini's debut novel. As a writer myself, I can genuinely appreciate the work that went into crafting this masterpiece. This is a very character-driven story, and I can say without a doubt that the author is incredibly skillful at characterizations. He's populated this story with individuals who are so vibrant and richly drawn that I feel like they actually exist somewhere in the world. Amir is an interesting POV character who is far from perfect, but who finds atonement for his past transgressions in a compelling and realistic way. Hassan is a beautiful soul with a kind and loyal heart, who clearly never stopped loving Amir even after all that happened, which is why the things that are done to him broke my heart into a million pieces. Even when Hassan isn't on the page, he's still a driving force in Amir's life whether Amir realizes it or not. All of the other supporting characters, even the ones that don't have a lot of page time are brought to vivid life, as well. The Kite Runner is a powerful and haunting saga that examines what it truly means to be a family. It also explores the concepts of love and honor, the fear that sometimes drives us to action or inaction, and the guilt that can result from those decisions. But ultimately it's a story about facing our fears and finding courage, and in doing so, we may also find liberation from past mistakes. This was admittedly not an easy book to read. It's a heart-wrenching story that sometime made me sad, but at the same time, it ends on a note that brings hope for the future, not only for the characters but also to the reader that, we, too, can find redemption for our own transgressions. As much as I really appreciated the characters and going on this journey with Amir, I also appreciated the beauty of the Afghan culture. I learned so much about that, as well as the history of Afghanistan from reading this book. It's a story I won't soon forget and one that I can wholeheartedly recommend to my fellow readers.

Note: This story contains both implied and one moderately descriptive scene of child rape, as well as suicidal ideation in a child, both of which could be distressing to sensitive readers.

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Khaled Hosseini