Kite Runner

KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini, my copy was printed by Riverhead Books at the  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2005. Copyright 2003.

I went into this book with an open attitude, I thought. But as I read and realized the time line and what is going on in that country today I had to readjust my thoughts. My heart wanted this to be set in an ancient timeline with everything in the end super rosy, but even in todays paper we see groups calling the Shites mules. The book is set in Afghanistan in a period of time fraught with tension, Russian takeover, Taliban takeover and none of them in anyway bringing light and helpfulness to the region.
This books shows that like the US, their are divisions of cultures. Even when we worship the same God. This book helped me see the divisions and the blindness that comes in the culture. I am not trying to be mean. Clearly our central character loved his Hazari, but not when he felt his father  paid more attention to the Hazari then he did to himself. He clearly felt some animosity towards his friend. The underlying current that the Shi'a are just animals who are not smart, that they only can be the servants of the Sunni. Where have I seen that in American history?

So politics aside. I finished this book fairly quickly. I could not put it down. I wanted Amir to stand up for his friend. I wanted Baba to accept Amir, for who he was. If those things happened the story would maybe change. I felt the story line was built really well. This book made me have sympathy, empathy  and just made me mad at the characters. The thing is that these are fictional characters, but these are things that really happen in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and the mid-east. On group constantly fighting another all because of how they are perceived.

The concept of eye for an eye is also played out in the book. In the beginning with Amir and Hassan against Assef, Wali and Kamal after the Assef vows to get them back. Then in the assault and the paybacks. It made me want to go after Assef myself. I was also very upset with Amir on many levels throughout the book. Even when he was trying to do good, he makes a mess of things.

I was told it was a good book and it is. It made me think, made me feel many emotions and made me want to understand that bit of country just a little bit more. Like the Irish in the 1840's there is a migration to  the United States to escape tyranny, this is still happening in Mexico with people coming to the States. Do we really represent freedom? People who come here do not always find that, as in this book Amir and Baba come here to live a life not of wealth but poverty. I think we are misrepresented as a land of plenty, it is only a land of plenty if there are not as many people. Too many people without jobs causes a land of emptiness not plenty.

Okay I am going to stop rambling. As I said before this book made me think. Now I get to think some more as I start MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdi.