Contemporary Reads: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is the first novel by Khaled Hosseini. I found the book interesting as I thought it explained quite well the contemporary history of one of the countries that has featured more prominently in the news since 9/11, Afghanistan.

One day, Afghan emigré to the USA Amir receives a phone call from his father's best friend, Rahim Khan, in Pakistan. This event prompts him to remember his childhood in Kabul, his fleeing to America via Pakistan after the Soviet invasion, his settling in America, his marriage to fellow Afghan Soraya, and the death of his father Baba. The most interesting part of his account is his relationship with his Hazara servant Hassan. Hassan and Amir were brought up together and were best friends. They are both motherless and raised by their fathers. Their friendship is nuanced by their different social class and ethnicity. Hassan grows up illiterate whereas Amir will eventually become a published author in the USA. The two "friends" are split after Hassan is raped by Hitler-admirer Assef while Amir witnesses hiding and does not intervened. Hassan and his father Ali leave the house in shame. Baba never does find out why.

Amir learns from Rahim Khan that Hassan was his half-brother and that he had left an orphan in Taliban-ruled Kabul. He rescues the child, Sohrab, from the twisted Assef who surely enough had ended up joining the Taliban. Amir adopts his nephew and with Soraya all three become a family in San Francisco.

Half way through the book we get a glimpse of the Afghan emigrant experience in the USA, which I found quite enjoyable too. However, what I most enjoyed about the novel are the first chapters that depict Amir's and Hassan's childhood in pre-Soviet and pre-Taliban Afghanistan.

I did not care much for the last chapters and the "not-without-by-nephew" saga which I found too much soap opera like for my taste.