The Kite Runner: When you love the book and hate the character

There is no easy way to put into words how good this book is. Moreover, the emotions that it awakens are by far something that doesn’t happen too often (at least to me, because I don’t usually read this kind of novels). And I’m not talking about those romantic stories that then become Zac Effron movies, no. The Kite Runner, by the Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini, tears your heart apart and makes you look for the pieces, as you go on hating the main character and feel like you have done so for years until you finish reading its 300 pages. 

This was the second Hosseini novel I read (the first one was ‘And the mountains echoed’, pretty good too) and so far, though I suffer like hell while I go through them, they certainly have something in common. Besides the fact that they picture painfull scenarios from the Middle East, at least these two novels are capable of placing yourself in the story. Suddenly you find yourself laughing, or yelling at some character, or furious, or sad. It even almost moved me to tears and I don’t cry often. The Kite Runner is definitely a moving story, and it moves you without any previous warning, like a sudden gust of wind does to a kite.

I started reading Hosseini’s stories upon the recommendation of a dear ex English teacher of mine (who still is one of the best I’ve ever had). The first book I found it, this second one it found me. It was looking at me from a stand in one of those little pre-owned bookshops in Plaza Italia, in Buenos Aires. As it always happens to me, when I go to buy some specific book I end up buying something else. Hi I’m Matias and I’m a bookaholic. 

The Kite Runner is the story of a twelve-year-old Afghan kid, Amir, and his dear friend, Hassan. Both of them, involved in a reality of love, hate, friendship, family, loyalty and betrayal, have to endure the difficult Soviet-Afghan war. Their lives change radically from what they were years before it happened and years after. What you know for sure even before reading the book is that at least one of them is magnificent at playing with kites.

The profound and touching meaning of the novel can derail you at some point, make you struggle to read it, find it unpleasant and despicable. That is something I cherish in a novel. Yes, it sounds contradictory. And no, it’s not. For me, if a story generates emotions at certain level inside yourself (even if they are of hate or whatever, not necessarily of love), if it’s capable of that, then it’s working. How words written on a piece of paper can make people cry? Well, there you go. It just clicks. That effect is not common, in my opinion. Most of the books tend to put yourself in the shoes of the main character and feel identified with it. This one doesn’t. It happened the same to me when I watched the movie Training Day, starring Denzel Washington. The guy is so good at being bad that you hate him. 

All the same, The Kite Runner is hard to put down. Somehow, though it does take a lot of effort and will, it makes you read on and on because you blindly believe in the good side of men. And this story has it, no doubt, a lof of it. But it is not easily displayed like in other novels. By doing that, I think, it shows you the suffering and dismay that millions of people live everyday in the Middle East. Something that is often heard about, but not showed. For example, this quote: “There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood”.

Anyway, The Kite Runner takes you on an emotional adventure from which you won’t come out unscathed. Nevertheless, it will be good for you to try it.

My rating for the book: 5 stars. This one is a must read. It's excellent.