BOOK: THE KITE RUNNER
AUTHOR: KHALED HOSSEINI
PAGES: 327
BLURB:
Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate
to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises
to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan
that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians
invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realizes that one day
he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his
new world cannot grant him: redemption.
MY
TAKE ON THIS BOOK:
The first book I’ve read of Khaled Hosseini was ‘And
the Mountains Echoed’ and I still remember the entire story. That’s the thing
with the stories of Khaled Hosseini, they leave an imprint on you, perhaps the
kind you will remember for a long time.
Amir’s father is a well known and respectable man in
Kabul. He had always stood up against the wrongs but his son, Amir lack the
qualities of his father. Whenever someone troubles Amir, he never stood up for
himself. It was always Hassan who stood for him. Hassan considered Amir as his
best friend but he was just the son of a servant for Amir. And when Hassan
needed him the most, Amir left him alone. This guilt stayed with Amir for the
rest of the life.
Amir’s father molded the world to his liking. The
problem, of course, was that he saw the world in black and white. And he got to
decide what was black and what was white. You can’t love a person who live that
way without fearing him too. May be even hating him a little. Amir struggled to
get love and affection from his father and it took him a long time to achieve
so.
The only way to get Baba’s attention was by winning
the kite flying tournament. There were no other viable options. Winning the
tournament and running for the last kite to show Baba how competent his son
was, was the only way Amir thought.
He won. But as he won, he lost something forever.
(What he lost? Was it a person or a possession or anything else? That you have
to find out from the book !)
Ali, the servant who worked in Amir’s home had a
congenital paralysis of his lower facial muscles, a condition that rendered him
unable to smile and left him perpetually grim-faced. It was an odd thing to see
the stone-faced Ali happy, or sad, because only his slanted brown eyes glinted
with a smile or welled with sorrow. People say that eyes are the windows to the
soul. Never was that more true than with Ali, who could only reveal himself
through his eyes.
Hassan kept trying to rekindle things between him
and Amir, but Amir doesn’t have the courage to face him. It hurts, when you try
to get back the bond you shared, but what you get in return is only series of
disappointments. Amir has always been harsh with Hassan but Hassan never took
it the wrong way. He always stood for his Amir Agha. And when Amir told him to
go away, to stop harassing him, he left.
Once, Amir took Hassan to a hill top where they
climb and read stories. That day, Amir threw a pomegranate to Hassan shouting
‘what should you do when someone hits you?’ he repeated it again and again and
then answered ‘you should hit them back’ sobbing in between. The love and
brotherhood shared between the two can’t be explained. I wish Amir wasn’t that
rude or harsh with Hassan. May be things would have been different if he never
participated in the kite flying tournament.
Although Amir and Baba toil to create a new life for themselves in the US, the past is unable to stay burried. When it tears it's ugly head, Amir is forced to return to his homeland to face the demons and decisions of his youth, with only a slim hope to make amends.
"When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, Rob his children of a father. And when you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There's no act more wretched than stealing" The way Baba explained this lines to Amir couldn't have been more realistic and relatable.
The final chapter of the book is perhaps my favourite, and one that I have found moving even when rereading it. The message behind the very ending could be interpreted differently by different readers, but personally I feel that it offers a small sense of hope for both the future of its characters, and perhaps for the war-torn Afghanistan as well.
I loved how the story kept unfolding with time and I assure you would love it too.
How Hassan and Amir got separated? What made them do so? Did they ever meet again? Why Amir remained thirsty for the love and affection of his father? What happened the night following the kite flying tournament?
I am leaving these question for you.
P.S.: the books I've read of Khaled Hossein so far always had a connection with Afghanistan and so does this book.
Let me know if you liked this book as much as I loved it :)
Overall rating: 4.3/5
👌
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