The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Two Kites and Two Kabuls

By David Drury

A Review of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, Author

(This review is spoiler-free on plot details but includes some character descriptions and relationships)

We oversimplify nations and generalize races. Our sadly simple news and generalized views of the Muslim world are a great example. Khaled Hosseini’s remarkable novel about a young boy in Afghanistan helps us see the complexities behind the headlines and the specific faces of a people we have allowed to remain all too foreign. The Kite Runner brings us into the boyhood of a well-off Kabul child named Amir, his father, and their father and son servants. By entering into the most universal—childhood—Hosseini enables us to take off the blinders and understand what life is like, or at least was like, in Afghanistan. He even lets us take hold of the kite string ourselves for a while, letting the glass string cut our own thumbs. The book itself warns us, however, that “there are many children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.” The Kite Runner, then, is a realistic tragedy wrapped in the hope courage brings.

The Kite Runner comes in pairs: two fathers, two sons, two classes, two religious sects, two wars, two countries, two cities, two decisions, two sins, two redemptions and eventually even the two kites for which the novel is named. The story is one of parallel lines that somehow cross with engaging but often tragic consequences. Amir’s father “Baba” is an important but distant business man. Their servant Ali is a sweet but polio-crippled man. Their servant’s son, Hassan, grows up as the boy’s best friend who would do anything for Amir. His life is lived in service and joy, and his attitude is summed up in his response to Amir’s requests: “For you, a thousand times.” Amir’s complicated feelings toward this servant boy—who is at once his best friend in the world and also the one who serves him breakfast—enable the book to probe into the emotions that everyone relates to but no one wants to face.

Hosseini’s tale has some parallels to his own story, as he too grew up in Afghanistan as the well-off son to an important man in that country in 1970s. While the context is autobiographical the content departs from his story with the brutal and beautiful touches of recent history and the greatest of fiction themes: sin and redemption.

I immensely enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to any adult reader. The Kite Runner’s pages are very readable and the author takes us into a different world with the best intentions of an experienced tour-guide matched with the interpretation of a skilled poet. Two times in the novel I knew I was in the hands of a master. When cancer enters onstage the author describes the evil and complexities of the disease in just one line: “Like Satan, cancer has many names.” I was most amazed, but also thankful, that I needed to hear the descriptions of brutality and Islamic sacrifice in this book in order to truly understand what the Christianized phrase, “lamb unto slaughter” really means. Hosseini’s lamb resigned to its fate and duty will haunt and compel me for years to come.

Thanks for writing, Dr. Hosseini.

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