THE KITE RUNNER

review by

Larry Shallenberger

THE KITE RUNNER

by Khaled Hosseini

(Riverhead)

Reader Appeal: Adults

Genre: Fiction

The Kite Runner is the story of an Afghani boy, Amir, who finds his life defined by an act of cowardly betrayal of which he is unable to forgive himself. In the characters own words “…the winter of 1975 came along and changed everything. And it made me what I am today.” Amir’s shame isolates him from his father, and his best friend Hassan. When he has grown, his shame isolates him from his wife.

The Kite Runner is also the story of the cataclysmic changes that Amir witnessed as a child and as an adult. Amir saw fristhand the Soviet invasion of 1979, Afghanistan’s reconstruction, and then it’s ultimate collapse under Taliban rule. Khaled Hosseni makes the country of Afghanistan a character in and of itself. His rich descriptions and love for the land of his birth leaves the reader feeling an affinity for a nation that was previously only known, to me at least, after 9/11.

At the climax of the story, Amir is given an opportunity to return to Afghanistan and atone for his past sin against Hassan. Once in Afghanistan, Amir is forced to confront the demons of his past. He ascends from his test finding redemption.

The Kite Runner is the debut novel by Khaled Hosseni, an Afghani immigrant whose family moved from Kabul to San Francisco. I found Hosseni’s writing powerful, concise, and evocative. He was able to capture the themes of guilt, redemption, love, and honor in an authentic manner. He uses the Afghani sport of kite fighting, and the role of the kite runner, as a powerful metaphor which drives the plot of the novel.

The reader should be cautioned that the tragedy that comes between Amir and Hassan is graphic and horrific. The violence isn’t gratuitous; Amir’s unwillingness to prevent the terrible crime creates the book’s conflict and plot arc. However, what Amir witnessed on that fateful day in the winter of 1975 is, frankly, hard to read.

Even with that caution, Kite Runner is a brilliant novel, and I highly recommend it for an adult audience. Not only will the reader be challenged by Amir’s story, but the insights gained into the complex cultural and religious makeup of Afghanistan outpace the one-dimensional glimpse of the nation which we are offered on the nightly news.

FAMILYFANS RATING: A+

--LS