Book Review for the month of February: The Kite Runner

Sorry guys, it took me forever to write this!!! Hope you enjoy it and I apologize if there are any mistakes! :)

"The Kite Runner" has won Original Voices Award, Borders Group, and Alex Award and YALSA among many others. Khaleid Housseini, the author is an amazing writer who has a good list of mentionable work published. 

There is nothing more I enjoy than a well written good book to read in my free time. This book is not only well written and captivating, but it gives you so much information about the war in Afghanistan and the rise of Taliban and at the same time the core of the book focuses on love, loyalty, betrayal and redemption. I started reading this book in the plane on my way back to my school, and I just could not put it down until I was done even if it meant I was sobbing on the plane. I know I will not do enough justice to this book, because it is so good that I do not have enough room in this post to write about it. Anyways, here is my weak attempt at reviewing this book that touched me so deeply…

First off, tell me what does loyalty mean to you? How would you feel if your friend would do anything or give up anything for you, and you betrayed him/her? This book, “The Kite Runner” answers those questions and a lot of other questions and leaves you feeling grateful for what you have in life. This book goes from talking about friendship between Hassan, a-low-class-servant Hazara and Amir, who is from a well-to-do family to the fall of monarchy in Afghanistan, to the Soviet invasion and the exodus of the people in the nation to Pakistan and United States and the rise of Taliban. It gives us graphic and haunting images of a man, desperate to feed his children, trying to sell his artificial leg in the market; an adulterous couple stoned to death in a stadium; a colored young boy forced into prostitution, dancing the sort of steps once performed by an organ grinder's monkey.

But to me, this book is mostly about the friendship and the human emotions attached with relationships and how that varies under different circumstances. It warms your heart when you read how close these two kids are despite the class differences they have, and Hassan steals your heart over and over again with his loyalty to Amir. Hassan, who is Amir’s kite runner, says he would eat dirt if Amir asked him to, and when Amir asked him if he would catch the kites for him would say “For you, a thousand times over.” Amir, as much as he loved Hassan could not understand Hassan’s saint-like behavior and his loyalty to him and why his dad favors Hassan over himself which brought out a lot of envy in him. Amir does not step up to heroism and does not save Hassan from the local bullies who rape Hassan and instead tries to get Hassan kicked out of the house out of his guilt. Hassan finally leaves the house and in a way, Amir ruined Hassan’s life and later it is found out that Hassan was Amir’s half-brother and shared the same father. Amir and his dad go to live in the States and Amir tries to redeem himself when he goes to Pakistan to save Sohram (Hassan’s son) who tries to commit suicide when he could not go to the States with Amir.

As I read the book, with tears running down my cheeks in the airplane while the air hostess asked me if I was okay (Yes, it was embarrassing), I could not help wishing I could strangle Amir for being so unfair to such a loyal friend. He is so humanly flawed, and repeats his mistakes and his disloyalty to Hassan when he leaves Sohram in the hands of U.S. aid. Amir finally redeems himself and saves Sohram from Aseef (who is the same person who raped Hassan as a kid) who makes him dress up like a woman and dance and rapes him sometime. He finally adopts Sohram and takes him to U.S. with him but Sohram stays aloof and does not want to talk to anyone. Finally, the book ends as Sohram and Amir fly kites together and Amir volunteers to be Sohram’s kite runner saying “to you a thousand times over…”

HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Editor's note: "The Kite Runner" is also available in audio and ebook. Also watch "The Kite Runner" movie. Trailer here! But i suggest you read the book first if you plan to: