For many of us, Afghanistan is a far off land whose exact location we would be hard-pressed to readily locate on a map. What do we think we know about the people? Are they primitive cave-dwellers, warlords, and religious extremists? Is their country a lost cause?
Author Khaled Hosseini does much to dispel many news-fuelled stereotypes in his first novel, The Kite Runner. An engrossing and moving story of betrayal, guilt, and redemption, the novel offers us a very human portrayal of people caught in the paradoxes of human existence – the desire to do good undercut by moral weakness, jealousy, and hypocrisy. The story is written from the perspective of Amir, the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant who, for reasons that become clear only late in the novel, treats his servants, Ali and Hazzan, members of the despised Hazaras, as family. Amir and Hazzan, about the same age, grow up together as friends. That friendship, however, is secretly betrayed when Amir fails to come to the aid of Hassan during a brutal assault. Although no one, including the ever-faithful Hasaan knows the truth, Amir is haunted by what he considers his cowardice. Every time he sees his friend he is reminded of what he failed to do and so he compounds his guilt by engineering the ouster of Hassan and his father Ali, never to see them again.
The second part of the novel, set in the United States after Amir and his father have fled the war-torn country of their birth, sees the pair establishing a new, but greatly humbled life, in Northern California. Eventually, Amir marries into a family of Afghan expatriates, and life seems good as he becomes a successful novelist. Then a call he receives one day from an old friend of his father, with the message, “There is a way to be good again,” sends him to Pakistan and then back to Afghanistan, where he risks his life to redeem himself.
The Kite Runner is a powerful narrative that leaves the reader feeling uplifted upon completion. Although in my view there is perhaps one pivotal aspect of the plot that relies too much on coincidence, it is a book that gives us access into the lives of people most of us have little knowledge of, and helps us appreciate the universality of the human condition. It merits the acclaim it has received.
Author Khaled Hosseini does much to dispel many news-fuelled stereotypes in his first novel, The Kite Runner. An engrossing and moving story of betrayal, guilt, and redemption, the novel offers us a very human portrayal of people caught in the paradoxes of human existence – the desire to do good undercut by moral weakness, jealousy, and hypocrisy. The story is written from the perspective of Amir, the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant who, for reasons that become clear only late in the novel, treats his servants, Ali and Hazzan, members of the despised Hazaras, as family. Amir and Hazzan, about the same age, grow up together as friends. That friendship, however, is secretly betrayed when Amir fails to come to the aid of Hassan during a brutal assault. Although no one, including the ever-faithful Hasaan knows the truth, Amir is haunted by what he considers his cowardice. Every time he sees his friend he is reminded of what he failed to do and so he compounds his guilt by engineering the ouster of Hassan and his father Ali, never to see them again.
The second part of the novel, set in the United States after Amir and his father have fled the war-torn country of their birth, sees the pair establishing a new, but greatly humbled life, in Northern California. Eventually, Amir marries into a family of Afghan expatriates, and life seems good as he becomes a successful novelist. Then a call he receives one day from an old friend of his father, with the message, “There is a way to be good again,” sends him to Pakistan and then back to Afghanistan, where he risks his life to redeem himself.
The Kite Runner is a powerful narrative that leaves the reader feeling uplifted upon completion. Although in my view there is perhaps one pivotal aspect of the plot that relies too much on coincidence, it is a book that gives us access into the lives of people most of us have little knowledge of, and helps us appreciate the universality of the human condition. It merits the acclaim it has received.
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