Book Review: The Kite Runner

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2003), 371 pp.
Reviewed by Carleen Rodriquez, Los Osos High School, Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

The fictional novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini brings to the readers' attentions the effects of a strong friendship between two boys living in Kabul, Afghanistan in the 1980's. The author uses great amounts of detail and descriptive diction in order to portray the characters' lives to the audience and create a greater general effect by appealing to the reader's senses by describing the surroundings and what life was like living in Kabul. Although the author finds inspiration in structures and figures that he remembers while growing up in Kabul, he doesn't describe the city and his experiences while living there directly through the two boys, but instead takes parts and puts a twist on them to make the setting more original. The two boys, Amir, a wealthy, upper-class kid growing up with his dad, and Hassan, one of their servants at home, grow up together and learn from each others ways. While living in a harsh town, where people are competitive with each other and friendships may be difficult to find, the city adds to the plot of the story by proving the importance of close bonds with friends in order to learn from life in Kabul; without friends, the area would be more dangerous to live. However, although much of Afghanistan is not as lucky to be as wealthy as Amir's father, the amount of money someone has plays an important role in a person's social status, as the lower class people tended to hold on to their morals and value of respect tighter. The novel is greatly influenced by the value of money and how much is able to get people the level of respect they desire, also the difference between the personalities of the wealthy compared to the lower socio-economic classes.

Although Hosseini seems to make the novel seem somewhat realistic as the boys grow up together in Afghanistan, there are some aspects of the story that seem to be hyperbolic or a little too extreme to be unbelievable. The problems in society, such as criminal activity and financial conflicts amongst the people seem truly believable, however, when the author sometimes over-exaggerates events like Amir's father having so much more money than the average citizen of Kabul, as he traveled in his fancy cars and often went out to see movies compared to lower social class workers, he is treated like a man with all the answers to their questions. Furthermore, the economic competition and the aggressive battles amongst the people do seem plausible because in society there always seems to be some form of competition occuring. The author completely relies on coincidence up to a part in the story when Amir, as an adult living in San Francisco, California, hears word about his childhood friend Hassan still living in Afghanistan, has a child that had been abducted by talibans. The author creates small coincidences throughout the plot to propel it forward, such as cutting the strings on kites, the way the two boys separate and meet up with each other in casual ways, and even the role played by the young, neighborhood bully, that seem to allow the story to move forward.

The diction and ironic situations the author, Khaled Hosseini, creates while Amir and Hassan go on their adventures throughout Kabul, propel the story forward and continues to increase the interest of the audience to a climatic point. The descriptive scenes and specific details that the author shares prove that the story is fiction, however, nonetheless, they do add to the story's plot and continue the escalating excitement to know how the novel concludes.