It was a painful and yet beautiful book. I too loved the perfect ending- life was not perfect but it was hopeful.
I actually thought Amir was a little hard on himself. He was a kid and he was reacting to influences out of his control in typical kid fashion. He was jealous of Hassan for reasons that he sensed but didn't understand or have enough knowledge to understand. His culture told him that Hassan was not a person but a slave. His father showed him different but also made him jealous because Hassan was everything his Father could have wanted in a son. There would have been sibling rivalry between them if they had both been legitimate- they might not have been friends at all then because of Amir's inferiority complex. They were able to have their strange friendship because of their situation. I got annoyed with Amir being cruel but his methods of cruelty were pretty mild- brotherly even- usually. He made up stories instead of reading the real words- stories that Hassan enjoyed. He flaunted his power a little but Hassan was good at standing up for himself subtly. He kept Amir from abusing his power too much(usually) by not reacting to his tauntings or simply offering his faithfulness and loyalty. My Mom used to tell my sister that my brother would stop taunting her if she didn't give him such a big reaction. Her reaction created all the fun. Hassan did this very wisely. Amir was a better person because Hassan showed Amir his faults simply by being Hassan.
It was hard to read about Hassan's abuse by Assef. It was hard to have Amir share in the shame without ever talking with Hassan about it. That was the worst- the months of non-communication and miscommunication. Later I think I was more mad at Rahim for not helping both of the boys through it. A child is not equipped to know how to deal with that kind of situation. Amir tried to avoid it and couldn't which is totally understandable. It was painful for him to set Hassan up and kick him out but based on later events I wonder if this was not better for him. Hassan escaped further abuse from Assef as a child. Based on the friend of Assef's who escaped at the same time as Amir and based on Hassan's murder- I think Hassan would have been terrorized continually by Assef if he had stayed there. Rahim said as much to Amir when he told him the story of his banished lover. Hassan was facing worse than Rahim's lover if he stayed and he had no one to protect him. I'm not sure that Amir could have done anything to protect Hassan in the streets from Assef. I'm not sure that even getting an adult would have done any good because he was too far from his father and most of the city did not consider Hassan person.
I thought it interesting that Assef was shown as the core of the Taliban- He being a man so impure and evil. It seems that was the nature of the movement- It professed to be one thing while in actuality it was another. It was a cover for hate and sin. It reminded me a lot of the Nazi reign of terror. Similar motivations and tactics.
I was proud of Amir for assimilating so fast the fact that Hassan was his half brother. That cannot have been easy. He spent so much of his life feeling inadequate and imperfect in his father's shadow. To suddenly discover his father was so imperfect(especially by his father's own standards) must have been very painful. He also showed bravery in taking the wife that he chose imperfect as she was. Amir was a better man than he gave himself credit for.
Wednesday, May 21
Sunday, May 18
Kite Runner - A fabulous title
I really enjoyed Danielle P's review of the book. She about covered everything that I would have mentioned. This was a tragic and haunting story. I still don't know if I am going to watch the movie because I am not ready to go back to that place [of heart wrenching sadness].
I didn't think I could ever forgive Amir for what he did to Hassan. I kept reading, hoping that something would make me feel better about that horrible scene... and the further betrayal (when Ali finally moved Hassan and himself out of Baba's home).
My heart just broke more when Baba got sick and Amir got called back to Afghanistan by Rahim Khan. The story of Hassan's mother coming back, the massacre that left Sohrab an orphan. Etc, etc. I just wanted to put the book down. I didn't though. I went to the near end and found the redeeming part of the book that helped me forgive Amir. Rahim Khan's letter to Amir... admitting he knew everything and encouraging him to forgive himself and make it right. The main thing he mentioned was that Amir was a child when he did those things to Hassan. A child. It made me rethink everything and what I would do at the age of 10 or 11 if something similar happened.
As for the title of the book and the ending... it was beautifully matched! Hassan a kite running hero at the beginning and Amir a hero at the end, teaching Hassan's boy the talent he surely had within him. The perfect tie.
I didn't think I could ever forgive Amir for what he did to Hassan. I kept reading, hoping that something would make me feel better about that horrible scene... and the further betrayal (when Ali finally moved Hassan and himself out of Baba's home).
My heart just broke more when Baba got sick and Amir got called back to Afghanistan by Rahim Khan. The story of Hassan's mother coming back, the massacre that left Sohrab an orphan. Etc, etc. I just wanted to put the book down. I didn't though. I went to the near end and found the redeeming part of the book that helped me forgive Amir. Rahim Khan's letter to Amir... admitting he knew everything and encouraging him to forgive himself and make it right. The main thing he mentioned was that Amir was a child when he did those things to Hassan. A child. It made me rethink everything and what I would do at the age of 10 or 11 if something similar happened.
As for the title of the book and the ending... it was beautifully matched! Hassan a kite running hero at the beginning and Amir a hero at the end, teaching Hassan's boy the talent he surely had within him. The perfect tie.
Kite Runner
It's been a long time since I posted (crazyness/lazyness are my excuses), and it's been a long time since I read "Kite Runner" (which I was in no hurry to reread). I really enjoyed the book for the good the bad and the ugly. I like a book that can take me out of the revolution of my daily existence, and help me to understand that the whole world does not live like middle class Americans. It helps me to be more appreciative of the life that I lead.
I could identify with personality traits of each of the main characters. It reminded me of selfish angry Scarlet and the loving, guiless, loyal Melanie (a bit of a stretch, I know) in "Gone with the Wind". I want to be the unselfish forgiving Hassan, but wonder if I'd be more likely to run when faced with a situation requiring great courage like Amir. We all make mistakes, and I hope that I have learned from mine.
I could identify with personality traits of each of the main characters. It reminded me of selfish angry Scarlet and the loving, guiless, loyal Melanie (a bit of a stretch, I know) in "Gone with the Wind". I want to be the unselfish forgiving Hassan, but wonder if I'd be more likely to run when faced with a situation requiring great courage like Amir. We all make mistakes, and I hope that I have learned from mine.
The Kite Runner: Not something you want to have every night...
Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is a bit like Schindler’s List. It’s intense, difficult to digest, and satisfying, yet not something you want to repeat often. Its themes are common enough: guilt/redemption, father/son relationship, power/control, prejudice, human nature (good acts vs. cruelty). The storytelling was good enough, at times beautiful and breezy. The characters were well-drawn if a bit stereotypical. The conflicts were real. The glimpse into another culture interesting. The ending was satisfying. But the story was filled with such pain and tragedy, it was hard to get through at times. The ending was a relief, not only in that Amir earns redemption but also because I could finally put the book down.
While the story has enough themes to keep it interesting, I would classify The Kite Runner as a character study more than anything. We have Amir’s father, a strong and moral man. He is charitable (gives food to poor, builds an orphanage), a critical thinker (don’t believe all the holy men tell you), and a bit cynical. There is the bully Assef, who never grows out of his emotional smallness and parochial view of the world. His rants make him sound like Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s enemy: “We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here” (40). There is Hassan, the pure-hearted and loyal servant friend (much like Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (a character who, in my opinion, is the true hero of the novel). Hassan knows who he is, remains steadfast to Amir, and is eternally optimistic. He is the perfect lamb, and Amir is the slaughterer.
The narrator Amir, is, as his father fears, weak. As a boy, he lacks courage. He is given opportunities to grow stronger but turns his back on them again and again. As a result, he abuses his “power” over his servant Hassan by teasing him and using him as his own personal ego-stroker while at the same time struggling over his feelings of admiration for Hassan. Amir afflicts small emotional abuses upon Hassan when he teases him with vocabulary words and does not acknowledge Hassan as his friend. Amir happily receives the attention Hassan pays him when the servant boy praises his master’s writing. And Amir struggles with himself, he wavers between embarrassment over Hassan and pride.
On page 54, Amir cruelly asks Hassan if the latter would “eat dirt if I told you to” and admits to being fascinated by teasing Hassan – his friend, his servant – as if Amir were torturing an insect.
On the very next page, the author gracefully describes a scene that shows the admiration Amir has for Hassan:
“Here it comes,” Hassan said, pointing to the sky. He rose to his feet and walked a few paces to his left. I looked up, saw the kite plummeting toward us. I heard footfalls, shouts, an approaching melee of kite runners. But they were wasting their time. Because Hassan stood with his arms wide open, smiling, waiting for the kite. And may God – If He exists, that is – strike me blind if the kite didn’t just drop into his outstretched arms.
As time passes, we learn that fear rules Amir’s life. He is afraid not only of being physically hurt but also from being emotionally vulnerable. His father recognizes this fear in his son – as we see when he expresses his concern to his friend – and his concerns are justified.
Amir’s greatest act of fear comes when he fails to fight for Hassan as the boy is being raped (just one of the difficult scenes to read). Amir allows Hassan to suffer this indignity and then – to add insult to injury – turns his back on Hassan’s friendship. This event crippled both Hassan and Amir. Hassan “stopped smiling,” and Amir became haunted by guilt.
Ultimately, it was Amir’s lifetime of guilt coupled with his deep but often suppressed admiration that led him to redeem himself as an adult. He left his cushy life in America to return to war-ravaged Afghanistan. He suffered Assef’s beating and took in Hassan’s newly orphaned son as part of his own family. He was given a chance to make up for his lack of courage as a boy, took that chance with reluctance, and with it, took a step closer to purifying his soul.
While the story has enough themes to keep it interesting, I would classify The Kite Runner as a character study more than anything. We have Amir’s father, a strong and moral man. He is charitable (gives food to poor, builds an orphanage), a critical thinker (don’t believe all the holy men tell you), and a bit cynical. There is the bully Assef, who never grows out of his emotional smallness and parochial view of the world. His rants make him sound like Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s enemy: “We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here” (40). There is Hassan, the pure-hearted and loyal servant friend (much like Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (a character who, in my opinion, is the true hero of the novel). Hassan knows who he is, remains steadfast to Amir, and is eternally optimistic. He is the perfect lamb, and Amir is the slaughterer.
The narrator Amir, is, as his father fears, weak. As a boy, he lacks courage. He is given opportunities to grow stronger but turns his back on them again and again. As a result, he abuses his “power” over his servant Hassan by teasing him and using him as his own personal ego-stroker while at the same time struggling over his feelings of admiration for Hassan. Amir afflicts small emotional abuses upon Hassan when he teases him with vocabulary words and does not acknowledge Hassan as his friend. Amir happily receives the attention Hassan pays him when the servant boy praises his master’s writing. And Amir struggles with himself, he wavers between embarrassment over Hassan and pride.
On page 54, Amir cruelly asks Hassan if the latter would “eat dirt if I told you to” and admits to being fascinated by teasing Hassan – his friend, his servant – as if Amir were torturing an insect.
On the very next page, the author gracefully describes a scene that shows the admiration Amir has for Hassan:
“Here it comes,” Hassan said, pointing to the sky. He rose to his feet and walked a few paces to his left. I looked up, saw the kite plummeting toward us. I heard footfalls, shouts, an approaching melee of kite runners. But they were wasting their time. Because Hassan stood with his arms wide open, smiling, waiting for the kite. And may God – If He exists, that is – strike me blind if the kite didn’t just drop into his outstretched arms.
As time passes, we learn that fear rules Amir’s life. He is afraid not only of being physically hurt but also from being emotionally vulnerable. His father recognizes this fear in his son – as we see when he expresses his concern to his friend – and his concerns are justified.
Amir’s greatest act of fear comes when he fails to fight for Hassan as the boy is being raped (just one of the difficult scenes to read). Amir allows Hassan to suffer this indignity and then – to add insult to injury – turns his back on Hassan’s friendship. This event crippled both Hassan and Amir. Hassan “stopped smiling,” and Amir became haunted by guilt.
Ultimately, it was Amir’s lifetime of guilt coupled with his deep but often suppressed admiration that led him to redeem himself as an adult. He left his cushy life in America to return to war-ravaged Afghanistan. He suffered Assef’s beating and took in Hassan’s newly orphaned son as part of his own family. He was given a chance to make up for his lack of courage as a boy, took that chance with reluctance, and with it, took a step closer to purifying his soul.
Tuesday, May 6
The Kite Runner
First of all, a hearty congratulations to Danielle Wheeler on her new baby (born April 14th).
OK - The Kite Runner. How different pre-Russian-invasion Afghanistan is from the Afghanistan we see on the news today? Even though toward the end of the book it was pointed out that the Afghanistan of the rich (Amir's family) was different from the Afghanistan of the normal person, it was actually heart-breaking to picture a happier, normal Afghanistan where kids can watch John Wayne movies and drink Coke.
I had a hard time sympathizing with Amir as a child. I was amazed at how much angst a little child could have, but also at how perceptive they are - Amir was so jealous of Hassan when they were little, and it was probably because he could sense his father's inner struggle. I did find the quote on page 51 very poignant - where Baba buys kits for both Amir and Hassan, and Amir wishes his dad would let him be the favorite. Doesn't every human have the need to be somebody's favorite - at least one person's favorite? Doesn't everybody want someone to prefer their company?
In the discussion questions, there's a question that references the pomegranate tree - "One summer day, I used one of Ali's kitchen knives to carve our names on it: 'Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul.' Those words made it formal: the tree was ours." Then later in a letter to Amir, Hassan says that "the tree hasn't borne fruit in years." The tree represents the "friendship" between the two boys (although Amir earlier says he didn't think of the two of the as friends... in the conventional sense). How ironic that the tree that emblazoned their moment of true friendship would be barren for years - barren like the years wasted because of Amir's reluctance to stand up for Hassan.
I like that Amir had the opportunity for redemption - that he was able to finally defend his true friend. I like that Amir could finally make up for what he did - the he finally was able to become whole.
SPOILER ALERT: I really had no idea that the vicious Taliban member with the John Lennon glasses was going to be Assef. However, didn't it really have to be? I mean, for Amir to be able to really atone for the hurt he caused Hassan, the final "showdown" had to be between the original triangle - Amir, Hassan (Sohrab) and Assef. Why didn't I see this coming? Why was I shocked?
There is so much I could say about this book. I turned down so many pages when I read something I found intriguing, touching, or powerful. I like the ending as well - it wasn't a forced, contrived ending - it didn't end with everything being better. It ended with a little progress made by Sohrab. Amir's downfall began with a kite - and his new, redeemed journey begins with another kite. A kite - flying around with easy motion...
OK - The Kite Runner. How different pre-Russian-invasion Afghanistan is from the Afghanistan we see on the news today? Even though toward the end of the book it was pointed out that the Afghanistan of the rich (Amir's family) was different from the Afghanistan of the normal person, it was actually heart-breaking to picture a happier, normal Afghanistan where kids can watch John Wayne movies and drink Coke.
I had a hard time sympathizing with Amir as a child. I was amazed at how much angst a little child could have, but also at how perceptive they are - Amir was so jealous of Hassan when they were little, and it was probably because he could sense his father's inner struggle. I did find the quote on page 51 very poignant - where Baba buys kits for both Amir and Hassan, and Amir wishes his dad would let him be the favorite. Doesn't every human have the need to be somebody's favorite - at least one person's favorite? Doesn't everybody want someone to prefer their company?
In the discussion questions, there's a question that references the pomegranate tree - "One summer day, I used one of Ali's kitchen knives to carve our names on it: 'Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul.' Those words made it formal: the tree was ours." Then later in a letter to Amir, Hassan says that "the tree hasn't borne fruit in years." The tree represents the "friendship" between the two boys (although Amir earlier says he didn't think of the two of the as friends... in the conventional sense). How ironic that the tree that emblazoned their moment of true friendship would be barren for years - barren like the years wasted because of Amir's reluctance to stand up for Hassan.
I like that Amir had the opportunity for redemption - that he was able to finally defend his true friend. I like that Amir could finally make up for what he did - the he finally was able to become whole.
SPOILER ALERT: I really had no idea that the vicious Taliban member with the John Lennon glasses was going to be Assef. However, didn't it really have to be? I mean, for Amir to be able to really atone for the hurt he caused Hassan, the final "showdown" had to be between the original triangle - Amir, Hassan (Sohrab) and Assef. Why didn't I see this coming? Why was I shocked?
There is so much I could say about this book. I turned down so many pages when I read something I found intriguing, touching, or powerful. I like the ending as well - it wasn't a forced, contrived ending - it didn't end with everything being better. It ended with a little progress made by Sohrab. Amir's downfall began with a kite - and his new, redeemed journey begins with another kite. A kite - flying around with easy motion...
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