The Kite Runner

Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
ISBN: 1594480001

Plot Summary: Amir led a privileged life in Afghanistan prior to the Communist revolution: he and his father lived in a spacious villa with servants, and his father was a well-respected man in his community. Amir had an unequal yet genuine friendship with Hassan, the son of his father's servant. Yet when Hassan is brutally attacked by a group of boys, Amir stands by and does nothing, and later falsely accuses his friend of stealing, causing both him and his father to leave the estate, so that he will not have to feel guilty anymore. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Amir and his father have to leave the country, eventually moving to Fremont, California, where Amir meets and falls in love with a young woman from the local Afghan community. After his father's death, Amir gets a telephone call from an old family friend, asking him to come back to Afghanistan to rescue Hassan's son. In the process, Amir comes face to face with parts of his past that he would rather forget, and slowly tries to help his best friend's son begin the healing process.


Critical Evaluation: The writing in this book is peppered with words and phrases in Amir's native tongue, Dari. Although this adds to the overall flavor and atmosphere of the book, it might prove problematic for younger and more reluctant readers. Although the plot is generally well-constructed, several plot points - most notably the agonizing and somewhat gratuitous treatment of Hassan's young son - feel awkward, and the author's descriptions of certain things - for example, his future wife's beauty - may provoke unintentional humor. That said, this book delivers a powerful message, and gives Westerners an insider's glimpse into a world with which they are generally only familiar from the outside.

Reader's Annotation: Amir, an Afghan immigrant living in California, gets a call from an old family friend, asking him to come back in order to save his former best friend's son. In the process, Amir confronts his tumultuous past, attempting to find peace for himself, his wife, and the boy they are trying to save.

About the Author: Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. When he was five, his father moved to Iran, where he worked at the Afghan Embassy in Tehran for three years before returning to Afghanistan, where Hosseini's younger brother was born. After Hosseini's father got a job in Paris in the mid-seventies, the family chose not to return to Afghanistan after the revolution, seeking asylum in the United States, where they eventually settled in San Jose, California. Hosseini attended Independence High School in San Jose, then earned a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Santa Clara University and an M.D. from UC San Diego. After his residency in Los Angeles, he practiced medicine until a year and a half after his first book, The Kite Runner, was published. He currently lives in Northern California with his wife and their two children.

Genre: Fiction: History, War

Curriculum Ties: World History, World Religions, Current Events

Booktalking Ideas:

Hook: Hassan's rape and its aftermath
Approach: Scene-based.
Ideas for Booktalk: Amir sees Assef and his friends attack and rape Hassan, yet is too scared to say or do anything. His guilt at not having helped his friend causes him to frame Hassan for theft, preferring to drive his faithful friend away rather than be faced with a daily reminder of his cowardice. Rahim Khan later forgives Amir for this, reminding him that he was very young at the time, but does Amir really forgive himself? His rescue of Hassan's son may be seen as a way of making amends to the father, who is dead by that time. Hassan spoke highly of Amir to the end; how does this make Amir feel?

Hook: Amir and his father adjust to life as immigrants in a new country.
Approach: Plot-based.
Ideas for Booktalk: Fremont has a large Afghan immigrant community. Frequent trips to the bazaar/flea market. How does this help Amir and his father fit in? Which of them has a harder time adapting to American life, and why? Amir's father becomes a big Reagan fan; discuss why this might be so. Amir decides to become a writer; examine reasons for him coming to this career choice. Amir lives in America, but decides to marry an Afghan girl whose father is from a similar background to his father's, and courts her in the traditional fashion. Balance between native and immigrant culture in Amir's life.

Reading Level/Interest Age: Adult/High School

Challenge Issues: Offensive language, sexual content, homosexuality, rape, drug use, character death, violence, religious viewpoint, racism, suicide.
Much of this book takes place in wartime Afghanistan, whether after the Soviet invasion or during the Taliban's first reign. Amir's father drinks socially, despite Islam's injunctions against alcohol, and other characters, including a young Russian soldier and Assef, the book's principal antagonist, use heroin. Assef is a pedophile as well as a drug addict, and raped Hassan when they were both young. Hassan's son, another of his victims, attempts suicide when he thinks he may be sent back to Afghanistan. A Russian soldier almost rapes an Afghan woman until Amir's father intervenes. Numerous character either die of natural causes or are killed, including one via public stoning. The Taliban characters in the book espouse an extremist view of Islam, and ethnic Pashtuns frequently discriminate against Hazaras, whom they view as genetically inferior. Characters in the book also frequently use racist and homophobic language, particularly Assef.
Given that this book depicts the horrors of war, and of life under oppressive government regimes, I would understand entirely if a parent did not want their child to read this book, or if it was felt that the book should remain in the adult fiction section rather than possible placement in the YA section. However, an older, more mature teen who can cope with reading about war and its various atrocities would gain a lot from this book, including a greater understanding of the religious, cultural and racial issues prevalent in Afghanistan, and more of the history of its various conflicts.

Why I Chose This Book: Prior to reading this book, my knowledge of Afghanistan was largely limited to what I had seen on TV: the Taliban terrorizing people, women in burqas, and starving refugees. This book not only painted me a fuller picture of Afghan life, culture and history, but also presented a universal story of conflict, friendship, and redemption.