The Kite Runner by
Khaled Hosseini is a touching story of a boy named Amir who grows up with guilt, fear, honor, and redemption. The story begins in Afghanistan with Amir and Hassan both young boys growing up together in Amir's luxurious home. Amir is the son of the wealthy Baba and they have two servants, Ali and his son Hassan who are Hazaras, racial minorities at the time. Amir and Hassan are the best of friends and although they don't know yet, they are half brothers related from Baba. Even though Amir thinks of Hassan so dearly, he feels jealousy when he sees Baba show more affection to Hassan rather than himself. One day, while Amir and Hassan are playing, they run into three boys named Assef, Wali, and Kamal. They threaten Amir that they'll hurt him for playing around with a Hazara but Hassan throws a slingshot at Asset to stop him. The story skips to the winter time when the boys enter a kite-fighting tournament. Amir wins the tournament and Hassan runs for the losing kite but ends up cornered in an alley with Assef and his gang. Stuck in the alley alone, Hassan gets raped by the three boys and Amir just stands and watches, too scared and unable to help. When Hassan returns, Amir pretends like he didn't see anything. Amir, loaded with guilt tries to get ride of Hassan and his father, Ali, to cease his guilt. Soon after, Hassan and Ali move away. The story then forwards to present day and Amir and his father Baba are living in poverty in America. Amir gets married to Soraya and later he hears news about Hassan and his wife Farzana. He visits Kabul to bring Hassan's family to American but he received a call that Hassan and Farzana were killed and their son Sohrab was in an orphanage. The rest of the story leads us to Amir trying to redeem himself by risking his life for his long-lost brother's son, Sohrab.
I was actually surprised at myself when I finished reading this book and when I knew I really enjoyed it because I'm not really a fan of slightly historical, violent kinds of stories but this one was very powerful and unforgettable. I really liked reading about Amir's character development and how he started off as a young boy, confused of his decisions and blinded by guilt and later developed into a mature person who can learn to take responsibility of his choices. This book showed the powerful bonds between friends, family, and love. I think the intimate account of love, betrayal and redemption won the hearts of many readers of this book. I would gladly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about character development and strong ties between family and friends. Overall, I felt warmth from this book and I'd like to recommend this book to everyone out there.
-Reviewed by Deborah, grade 9.
Comments
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a deeply moving and powerful piece that revolves around love, loss, betrayal, loyalty, and a craving for acceptance. Khaled Hosseini uses flashbacks and foreshadowing to keep the reader on edge and interested, contributing to a great crescendoing end. Haunting and powerful, the novel is an extension of the author’s thoughts and feeling towards the nature of society. He uses syntax along with many other literary devices and complexities to achieve perspicuity and to emphasize the themes that no crime goes unpunished, we are creatures of relationship, the choices we make affect our lives in the future, and especially, love is more powerful than evil. Overall, I think that this is an amazing book, but I would not recommend it for children because it touches on mature subjects.
Reviewed by RO, Grade 10
Casa Verdugo Library