Book Summary: The Kite Runner

I read the "The Kite Runner" way back in the winter vacations of 2012. I started reading two books at tandem, "The Kite Runner" being one of them, and targeted to finish both by the end of my company's shutdown period. I finished neither.

I gifted this book to many of relatives since I loved the author's writing style of detailing and his metaphors that beautifully connected various events of his life. When I got married, I convinced my wife that this book was the best I had ever read. And she too finished the  book and sobbed through reading it. But I never got to completing the reading of "The Kite Runner". In a way, completing this book now was like home coming.  

It is no coincidence that the author of the book, Khaled Hosseini hails from Afghanistan. The book is about two Afghan boys, Amir and Hassan, who grew up together in an Afghanistan in a pre-war era. The author has written the book with Amir being the first person. Amir has a happy childhood with Hassan, who is one year younger to Amir, and both of them are inseparable because of a deep bond of friendship and brotherhood. Both Amir and Hassan do various things together but kite flying is their favorite activity. While Amir flies kites, Hassan runs a kite which falls from the sky. But then Hassan has an unfortunate incident for which Amir holds himself accountable. The guilt in Amir mind and heart makes him to distance Hassan and eventually their bond of friendship is broken. Hassan moves to another town in Afghanistan. A long seizing war ensues in Afghanistan which makes Amir and his father flee Afghanistan to take asylum in California, USA.

In the US, Amir realizes his childhood dream and becomes an accomplished writer. He gets married to a lady he loves and he lives in the San Francisco city. But twenty years later Amir gets a phone call from his childhood uncle who urges Amir to come to Pakistan to meet him before his death. From his uncle, Amir finds out that Hassan was his half brother and that he was no more. Hassan and his wife were killed by Taliban rulers and Hassan was survived by his only son. Amir takes an impossible journey to Taliban ruled Afghanistan to rescue Hassan's son from Taliban rulers. Even though Amir manages to rescue Hassan's son by risking his life, Hassan's son has too many memories of the atrocities meted out to him from the Taliban. Amir manages to immigrate Hassan's son to USA and constantly tries to integrate him with his family. And in the end he does.  

While the story in the book can be summarized in two paragraphs, the depth emotions that the author portrays in the book cannot. The author makes you experience the pain that both Amir and Hassan undergo when Amir distances himself from Hassan, the struggle and the suffering that Amir and his father experience when they are fleeing Afghanistan because of Russian invasion and the bereavement that Amir goes through when his father battles cancer and eventual death. The characters of Hassan and his father, who are servants to Amir and his father, show exemplary devotion to their masters. Such devotion which is difficult to associate with any relationship that we can think of in our current age. At a personal level, the mention of flea market in Berryessa, San Jose and Fremont in Amir's earlier phases of life is USA are endearing and fascinating to know. The author's association of the history of Afghanistan, like the Russian invasion of 1970s to Taliban rule in 1990s and early 2000s, with the characters of Amir and Hassan is also very different. It gives an insight of how difficult the life could be for the refugees of war and how lucky we have been to only read about war and its effects in books, magazines and news. This book is a definitely a good read.