The kite runner(Khaled Hosseini)-a review

After shantaram,this is the only book that has me gushing…so I am going to attempt reviewing it.
The story centralizes around Amir,a wealthy boy in Kabul,who lives in a huge house with his father(whom he calls as Baba),their Hazara servant,Ali and his son Hassan.Baba’s friend Rahim Khan visits them often.Amir’s mother dies while giving birth to him,and Amir feels this is the reason Baba isn’t very fond of him,and that secretly Baba blames him for the death of the woman he loved.Hassan’s mother is Sanaubar,a woman whose beauty is legendary,and who escapes with a band of gypsies soon after giving birth to Hassan.
The neighbourhood they live in is quite wealthy,and there lives a boy called Aseef born to a German mother and an Afghan father in the same neighbourhood. He is a sadist, and goes out of his way to pick on Ali because of his appearance,and the fact that he is a Hazara.(Hazaras are considered to be of lower caste,and treated with contempt.)

Amir and Hassan have an enjoyable childhood,but things soon change.One day,Aseef tries to hurt Amir with his infamous brass buckles,and Hassan stands up for him,and threatens to take out one of his eyes with his slingshot.Aseef tries to stand his ground,but has to back down because it is common knowledge that Hassan is deadly with his slingshot.



Amir takes after his mother,who thought literature at the university and is fond of books and literature and poetry.His father strictly disapproves,feeling it isn’t manly enough. His only source of encouragement in this aspect is from Rahim Khan,who gifts him with a diary to write his stories in,as a gift for his birthday.

In a desperate attempt to gain his father’s affection,Amir decides to win the local kite flying tournament,which he eventually does.Hassan is his kite runner,who almost has a sixth sense for guessing where the last defeated kite would fall.The kite that falls last is considered a souvenir, and everyone makes a beeline to get it. While going to get it,Hassan tells Amir that he would run the kite how many ever times needed(“for you a thousand times over”).Amir is so exulted by his victory and overwhelmed by his father’s attention,that he fails to notice Hassan’s absence till it becomes quite dark. Then he runs to the far end of the bazaar to search for him.In one of the dark alleys,he comes across Aseef and his cronies gang raping Hassan,in order take revenge for how he humiliated them when they tried attacking Amir. Amir watches all this,but doesn’t make any attempt to stop them. After he is let go, Hassan behaves as though nothing has happened. Amir is so overcome by guilt that he didn’t make any attempt to stop it, but he takes it out by being indifferent to Hassan, especially as he feels jealous of the attention Hassan gets from his father. In order to get Hassan out of the picture, amir frames him as a thief. Ali is very upset about this and leaves the house, along with hassan and they go to hazarajat.

Then Afghanistan gets invaded by the Russians and so Amir and his father flee to Pakistan and eventually California. Baba works many shifts at a local gas station to make ends meet, and they also go every weekend to the flea market to sell goods. Here they acquaint the Taheris,who are fellow afghans. Baba comes down with lung cancer,but he fulfils amir’s wish by getting him married to Soraya Taheri,before he dies.



Amir gets a good start as a novelist,and things are going smooth domestically but for the fact that Soraya and Amir cant have kids. Then rahim khan calls him from Pakistan and asks him to come. Amir goes and many truths are revealed,among them being the fact that hassan is the illegitimate son of baba and sanaubar,as ali is impotent, and that hassan has a son by name Sohrab,who is now an orphan. Rahim khan wants amir to find sohrab,and to take him back home to the US as a sort of redemption. Amir embarks on the journey fraught with danger, with the truck driver Fareed. He tracks down Sohrab to an orphanage,and finds out that he has been taken by a Taliban official,and is being abused sexually. He attempts to fight the official,who turns out to be Aseef,and he is almost pounded to death-till sohrab intervenes with his slingshot and takes out aseef’s eyeball,finishing what his father had threatened;proving that life does come a full circle,no matter what.
Then amir plans to take sohrab back to the US, but due to immigration problems he can’t. when he tells the boy he might have to go back to an orphanage,he attempts suicide and loses faith in Amir. The boy is saved and taken back to the US,but he still maintains a distance from Amir and Soraya. However, there is a kite flying session happening in San Jose,and there Amir talks about Hassan to Sohrab,and how he used to run kites. This makes sohrab talk a bit to him,and when he asks sohrab if he wanted him to run the kite,and sohrab smiles,he is so elated and tells him “for you a thousand times over”..proving yet again that life comes a full circle.

The best part of the book is the way the characters are etched out,in a way that everyone can relate to…especially the feelings of jealousy,self centeredness,guilt,loyalty and the need for redemption. It explores the turmoils that every human has to go through at some point of life,in a very candid way. On the whole a very realistic and touching book.