Book Review: ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini

SHEILA ALEXANDER
Development communications coordinator

Is loyalty earned, freely given, or is it demanded?

Amir and Hassan, Afghani elite and Hazara servant, are raised together — the boys are nearly inseparable. Hassan is completely devoted to Amir, but that intense loyalty is not fully reciprocated. Amir is jealous of his father’s obvious love for Hassan, and it sparks him to sometimes cruelly remind the servant boy of his low societal status.

Hassan’s devotion is unrelenting in every situation. When Amir’s devotion to Hassan is put to the test, Amir fails his friend. His intense guilt, coupled with increasing jealousy of his father’s love, causes him to purposely hurt Hassan badly enough to break their brotherhood bond completely —– or so Amir believes.

The first line of “The Kite Runner” is intriguing: “I became what I am today at the age of 12 …” Read the first paragraph and you will not be able to put the book down. This coming-of-age novel will spark your reactions through its stories of terrible cruelty and intense loyalty. The strength of love shines above the world’s terrible cruelty.

Set in the 1970s in Afghanistan, just before the Russian invasion, the story moves to California and then back to Afghanistan under Taliban control. “The Kite Runner” is a very powerful book with beautiful language that is startling in its quality for a debut novel. There are discussion questions at the end to assist book groups.

“The Kite Runner” is available for $14 at the Sweet Briar Book Shop.