I seriously thought I would stop reading tough books. Well, I'm more than halfway done through my toughest book yet. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini.
WARNING!! SPOILER ALERT!
"The Kite Runner" is simply the best book I have ever read. It has everything a book needs. Great characters, characters that can make you believe they are real. The events and plot are heart breaking and depressing, and happy and joy full. There is action, and peace, calm, and turbulence, all combining to make Khaled Hosseini's masterpiece.
This book is told from the point of view of Amir, and follows him through his life. It begins with him as a child, with his best friend, a Hazara servant, Hassan. Hazaras are an ethnic group in Afghanistan, the group that is looked down upon. Amir is a Pashtun, the ethnic group viewed higher in Afghanistan. The book goes from the prejudice that the Hazaras of Afghanistan are forced to deal with to the outcome of Russia's invasion of the country. Amir doesn't realize how far apart in Afghan society he and Hassan are. Until one fateful winter day.
Amir enters a kite tournament as a flyer. Hassan is the best kite runner in town, and is Amir's partner.
Kite fighting is basically a sport in which you try to cut down your opponent's kite with your tar, a part of the string covered in shards of glass.
Amir wins the tournament and Hassan goes after the last kite to fall, which is a spectacular prize. Amir waits for Hassan to return with the kite. And waits. And waits, Finally he encounters Hassan in an alley blocked by a boy named Assef and Assef's two friends.
Assef is a Pashtun who believes that Hazara's should be dealt with the way Hitler dealt with the Jews. Hassan and Amir have encountered him once before. But Hassan was armed. And Amir was there now Hassan is all alone.
Amir watches as his best friend is raped in that alley. He runs away, shaken greatly by what he has just seen.
Amir is ashamed that he stood and watched Hassan get raped. He begins to avoid Hassan and eventually, Hassan and his father Ali join a Hazarajat.
Years later, Russia's leadership has become to much for Amir and his father, Baba. So they decide to flee Afghanistan to head to America.
In America, Amir marries and Baba dies of cancer. A little bit before where I am in the book, Rahim Khan, one of Amir's adult friends when he was a child, calls him and tells him he has fallen ill. When Amir arrives, Rahim Khan tells him of the Taliban's mistreatment of the people, the violence that has swept Kabul and all of Afghanistan, and most importantly, Hassan.
Hassan was killed by a Taliban right outside of Baba's old house. So was his wife. That left their child, a young boy, to a fate Hassan never wanted to see his child face. Hassan's child becomes one of the many orphans in modern day Afghanistan. And one other thing. Hassan was really Amir's brother. Rahim Khan's dying wish is that Amir go to Kabul and save his nephew from an uncertain fate. Amir decides to go, and is just realizing how much Kabul has changed from the city he grew up in. He now has to go and find his nephew, who has been taken by the Taliban.
This book manages to tell the story of Afghans and Afghanistan even though a good majority of it is set in San Francisco. It teaches you how awful things can get, and the importance of friendship and bravery. And it is the book that reminded me why I love to read.
Also, I commented on weismanww.blogspot.com.
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