The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is a good book and I just want to put this review here for those who want to read the book but do not have enough time to read and most probably lost interest in it.You can search Wikipedia of course but this is different. For those who are reading the book and not wanting to have their imagination spoiled by me, then back off although it doesn't really tell much anyway.

The Kite Runner

Amir, an Afghan boy has a life full of heart wrenching yet beautiful moments in his life. In this novel, he yearns to have the everlasting love of Baba, his father. He does try to please his father and to make his father proud of him. However, Amir does not have a heart of courage and defending himself, thus always letting his father down into thinking that he will hardly make it to be a real man in his life. Amir loves to read and compose stories but is not sporty like his father who happens not to like books. Rahim Khan, a friend of Baba, understands Amir’s plight and problems. He thus encourages Amir to follow his way and dreams.

Hassan, Amir’s servant, is a Hazara, a race discriminated by other races in Afghanistan. Most Hazaras are servants and slaves badly treated by their masters. Hassan is somewhat the opposite of Amir, always standing up for himself and Amir, also having a thick skin when people make fun of him. There are times when Amir gets jealous as Baba seems to treat Hassan like his son when he’s only a servant. Complications arise after Amir witnessed Hassan being cruelly raped by Assef, a strong supporter of Hitler when Hassan was fetching Amir’s kite after the latter won the kite competition. After the kite competition, Baba readily accepts Amir as his good son which is what Amir wanted always. Deep in Amir’s heart, there lives guilt about the incident he had. He knew he was foolish, selfish and lacked courage into helping Hassan. Amir began plotting to get away from Hassan, knowing that he was guilty. He finally manages to get rid of Hassan although he regretted later on.

War comes; Amir and his father escape to America. Adapting to America was tough to them; they were n’t living with comfort and had to start from scratch to feed themselves. Days passed by and Amir graduated, got a job and a wife and Baba died peacefully along the way. Many years later, he had a call from a dying Rahim Khan and went back to Afghanistan to his hometown, Kabul to visit him to catch up with the times. But he never knew a great secret would be unraveled to him…

Amir has to find Hassan’s son, Sohrab, to give him a good life; away from the terror and miseries under the new government, the Taliban. With determination and perseverance in himself, Amir seeks help along the way and touches many people’s hearts, finding Sorab in Assef’s hands. He fights with Assef and saves Sohrab from slavery and cruelty into freedom. There were hardships and misunderstandings to getting Sohrab to be accepted into America. They finally settled down as one big family. Amir has finally become a true man able to redeem himself of the mistakes he had commited.

The Kite Runner is about love between the relationship of a father and son, trust and betrayal in a friendship, the means of being loyal to each other and determination to redeem of one’s soul when in the wrong.