Every morning, I watched from my bedroom window as their Hazara servant shoveled snow from the driveway, cleared the way for the black Opel. Some flaw or other in our design always spelled its doom. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.” It is considered "the darling of the book clubs." I’d won, but as I shuffled for a new game, I had the distinct suspicion that Hassan had let me win. [1] Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. “And you can’t use aluminum to make your glass string.”. We went to the bazaar and bought bamboo, glue, string, and paper. Baba and I lived in the same house, but in different spheres of existence. In this way, The Kite Runner is an unconventional story of love and betrayal between two friends, Amir and Hassan. Amir meets the Taliban leader, who reveals himself as Assef. [34] While reviews were generally positive, with Entertainment Weekly deeming the final product "pretty good",[35] the depiction of ethnic tensions and the controversial rape scene drew outrage in Afghanistan. When Amir provides comfort to Hassan in the theater, it is important to recognize that a darkened theater is not the same as a lighted, public place. ", "Book Buzz: 'Kite Runner' celebrates 10th anniversary", "A Woman's Lot in Kabul, Lower Than a House Cat's", "Khaled Hosseini: 'If I could go back now, I'd take The Kite Runner apart, "Wrenching Tale by an Afghan Immigrant Strikes a Chord", "The Kite Runner: Is Redemption Truly Free? The chapter ends with another mention of the event that took place in the winter of 1975 "and all that followed," but this time as the suspense continues to be built, more information — such as the information about Amir's and Hassan's first words and the fact that other things followed from that winter day — adds to the complexity of the event. Hassan refuses to give up the kite, and Assef severely beats him and rapes him. Some of our cousins died. “I know,” he said. And not the black-and-white kind either. We were sipping tea, talking. Baba was used to winning, winning at everything he set his mind to. The Shi'a Muslims are the Hazaras, the lower class, the servants. [24], Meghan O'Rouke, Slate Magazine's culture critic and advisory editor, ultimately found The Kite Runner mediocre, writing, "This is a novel simultaneously striving to deliver a large-scale informative portrait and to stage a small-scale redemptive drama, but its therapeutic allegory of recovery can only undermine its realist ambitions. If I did win . I reached the corner and saw Hassan bolting along, his head down, not even looking at the sky, sweat soaking through the back of his shirt. Winter to me was the end of long division and naming the capital of Bulgaria, and the start of three months of playing cards by the stove with Hassan, free Russian movies on Tuesday mornings at Cinema Park, sweet turnip qurma over rice for lunch after a morning of building snowmen. The whole story’s theme revolves around this piece of advice given by Baba to Amir, “Here it comes,” Hassan said, pointing to the sky. [32], Four years after its publication, The Kite Runner was adapted as a motion picture starring Khalid Abdalla as Amir, Homayoun Ershadi as Baba, and Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada as Hassan. Amir is relieved that Hassan saves him from a beating, but the older, narrator Amir knows that his younger self partly believed Assef, and thought that Hazaras were inferior. "[2][11] Regardless, he maintains that the plot is fictional. The narrator describes the physical features of the characters and recounts some particular events growing up. Hassan runs for the last cut kite, a great trophy, saying to Amir, "For you, a thousand times over." I did not intend this, but I am keenly interested, it appears, in the way parents and children love, disappoint, and in the end honor each other. Amir and Hassan in the Good Old Days. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy. Amir and Soraya settle down in a happy marriage, but to their sorrow, they learn that they cannot have children. It snowed heavily the night before the tournament. I forced a smile. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. It's about redemption, and redemption is a powerful theme. Fights broke out. [9] The news "struck a personal chord" for him, as he had grown up with the sport while living in Afghanistan. I remember one kid, Ahmad, who lived across the street from us. I was a good kite fighter. "[9] Having left the country around the time of the Soviet invasion, he felt a certain amount of survivor's guilt: "Whenever I read stories about Afghanistan my reaction was always tinged with guilt. [29] The latter was pleased with the final product and said, "I believe Fabio Celoni's work vividly brings to life not only the mountains, the bazaars, the city of Kabul and its kite-dotted skies, but also the many struggles, conflicts, and emotional highs and lows of Amir's journey. [9][11][19] As a child, Amir fails to save Hassan in an act of cowardice and afterwards suffers from an all-consuming guilt. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him. The doctor is going to fix Hassan's cleft lip, a gift designed to last forever. I pretended to listen. I remember how my classmates and I used to huddle, compare our battle scars on the first day of school. And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. He whirled around, motioned with his hand. Fifteen years after his wedding, Amir receives a call from his father's best friend (and his childhood father figure) Rahim Khan. [3][6][7] In 1999, Hosseini learned through a news report that the Taliban had banned kite flying in Afghanistan,[8] a restriction he found particularly cruel. The photograph of Baba, Amir, and Rahim Khan is an important physical representation of the nature of these relationships. Finally, Khan tells Amir that the reason he has called Amir to Pakistan is to ask him to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Kabul. Hassan again proves himself as brave and unwaveringly loyal to Amir, while Amir cannot help his selfishness and racial prejudice against Hassan. Although Baba believes "there is no act more wretched than stealing", he forgives him. Eyes crinkled. Amir witnesses the act but is too scared to intervene. Amir is freed of the daily reminder of his cowardice and betrayal, but he still lives in their shadow. Ali's singing voice, which the boys enjoy hearing, demonstrates the inner beauty of something that is externally ugly. Wait!” I yelled, my breathing hot and ragged. Rahim Khan further reveals that Ali was sterile and was not Hassan's biological father. And that wasn’t so far off. Earlier that day, I’d asked Ali to set up the kursi for us—which was basically an electric heater under a low table covered with a thick, quilted blanket. And then, of course, we had to make our own string, or tar. Not this time. “I heard they already have it in Iran,” he said. But I couldn’t listen, not really, because Baba’s casual little comment had planted a seed in my head: the resolution that I would win that winter’s tournament. People experience their lives against the backdrop of their culture, and while Hosseini wisely steers clear of merely exoticizing Afghanistan as a monolithically foreign place, he does so much work to make his novel emotionally accessible to the American reader that there is almost no room, in the end, for us to consider for long what might differentiate Afghans and Americans.