The Kite Runner - Hosseini

Let’s face it, when I read Khaled Hosseini’s novel “The Kite Runner”, I simply assumed I was reading historical fiction and that Amir, the main character in the book was the real author. I had to keep looking at the title page to convince myself it wasn't Amir.  If you can achieve that with fiction, I suspect that means you are doing something good.  This is certainly the case with Hossenini.  And obviously his reading public would agree.  

To start at the end, this book  closes with the events of September 11, 2001, in which the downing of the World Trade Centers changed our country.  In Amir’s case, his closing remarks were about his revelation that Afghanistan has become a household name, to be discussed, of all places, in the most American of our coffee houses, Starbucks.  Over the 17 years since it first appeared on the New York Time’s best seller list, it has received major acclaim, and of course  the movie also garnered acclaim in 2008.  And many US high schools have picked it up in their 11th and 12th grade literature classes, another source of acclaim, although to some extent, any book of great controversial subject matter, stirs the pot of emotions stemming from political correctness, to religiosity, to just plain vanilla helicopter-parent-paternalism.  The world has changed, Afghanistan is on the map, and Amir, having  reconciled the demon’s of his past, is no closer to solving the problem in front of him.  Redemption is only bittersweet.

At the start, in 1975 when we first meet Amir’s and his life changes forever, we meet those demons; and we also meet the Kite Runner. Hassan, the kite runner,  is Amir’s best friend. He is also his servant who tends to his every need.  Hassan makes his food, cleans his house, irons his clothes and is his constant companion, except in school, where Amir learns to read and write, and Hassan, of a minority group belonging to a lower societal caste, remains illiterate.  Growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, living a life of privilege, in a society that is beginning to falter, the two boys would share their common passion for flying kites.  Amir would fly and fight the kite in competition, and Hassan would chase vanquished kites, retrieving them for their victor as a trophy, by outwitting and  running those who were also in pursuit.  Hassan became the most fabled kite runner in Kabul for his uncanny ability to predict when and where the free flying kite, string cut, would return to earth. Having made many runs through the city, as the story must, during one such run, Hassan experiences the full onslaught of racial violence one group of oppressors could subject on another group. And Amir, helpless as he believes, allows this violence to play out.  His demon’s were born.  Despite his abysmal cowardice the search for redemption compels you to read further.

The road to redemption requires the telling of Amir’s story.  But in a broader sense, he is telling the recent history of Afghanistan...a truly tumultuous period of time between the fall of the Monarchy and the rise of the Taliban, interspersed with the Russian invasion which made conditions ripe for that seizure of total power in the vacuum.  Of course without the Taliban there would have been no 9/11. The US remains in Afghanistan today... although to be topical, President Trump, has just announced another reduction of troops from 4,500 down to 2,500. At the height of the conflict the United States had no less than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. This reduction of 2,000 troops, by comparison, seems paltry and no doubt only political. Lest I head down that same path, I return to The Kite Runner.  

Beautifully narrated by Hosseini, having never been to Afghanistan, I feel compelled to one day travel there to see the valleys, smell the air, meet the people, and of course see kites fly.  It is important to note that at the height of the Taliban’s reign of terror, flying kites was illegal.  That would be, for our country, the equivalent of banning baseball.  Can there be a more innocuous pastime than flying kites?

The Kite Runner is an important book.  My daughter read it in highschool and basically demanded that I read it too.  Not just to learn about life in Afghanistan, but certainly learning deeply about a different culture is a first rate education.  But more so for the story of conflict on so many levels.  Conflict of class, race, religion, politics, and for course, a conflict of the heart.  This story pulls at your heartstrings as aptly as a string moves a kite. I was moved to tears on no less than three occasions.

In truth, I struggled to read this book in print form, due to Hosseini’s intentional use of cultural names and words for which I stumbled to pronounce.  Listening to the audio book, however, allowed me far easier access.  Afterwhich, when accustomed to the language, the pages were easier to read and Hosseini’s words jumped from the pages.  Four stars for this important book.