The Kite Runner

Having done Andre Dubus III's House Of Sand And Fog for our last book discussion, I was struck by it's main protagonist, an Iranian immigrant who fights to retain ownership of his house. Through him, Dubus gives us a fascinating glimpse into Iranian culture and it struck me how similar some of their practices were to Indian customs and traditions. It also hit me how little I know of Middle-Eastern people and their culture, understandable as I hardly read anything written by Middle-Eastern authors. My last exposure to the Muslim world via fiction was several years ago, during my Uni days when I picked up James Clavell's mammoth Whirlwind, a 1000-page plus epic set in Iran detailing the lives of Westen Expatriates and their attempts to get out during the take-over of the Ayatollah. Predictably, the book was from the point of view of an American and Finnish pilot and their "exotic" Persian wives. Characters were drawn in broad strokes with typical ethnic caricatures: Stone- Faced Mullahs and their fanatically lethal soldiers, severely patriarchal families and their subjugated women. I got the picture real quick- Iranian Men: Fanatical Blowhards, Iranian Women: Sultry and Shagedelic!Part of me ignored such stereotyped characterisations as I let myself get swept up in Clavell's phenomenally entertaining epic, an action adventure replete with chases and thrills spiced up the way only a master storyteller like Clavell could. But a part of me longed for a little more meat in the kebabs, so to speak.Enter The Kite Runner, a fascinating novel of Guilt and Redemption set in Afghanistan. Written by Khaled Hosseini, the son of a diplomat who was born in Kabul and whose family was granted political asylum in the US, this is a novel of Afghan characters set for the most part in Afghanistan so there is an air of authenticity in its evocation of places and people.The protagonist Amir, living a privileged life in Kabul, forms a close bond with Hassan, their servant's son. It's a bond that's not so much tested as ripped apart after a vicious incident involving Hassan. Years later, the guilt-wracked Amir, now happily married and a published novelist in America, where he and his father emigrated to after the Soviet invasion of their country, receives a fateful phone call from his father's oldest friend Rahim Khan in Pakistan, asking him a favour, an avenue to purge his guilt. "There is a way to be good again," Rahim Khan tells him. Amirs journeys back to Afghanistan, but the road to redemption is a harsh one....What I loved about this book was the realistic slice of Afghan life Hosseini serves up so expertly. Be it Amir's posh childhood existence in the affluent Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood in Northern Kabul, living in a "sprawling house of marble floors and wide windows" with "intricate mosaic tiles, handpicked in Isfahan" covering 4 bathrooms and "gold-stitched tapestries" lining the walls not to mention crystal chandeliers hanging from vaulted ceilings , the "buzkashi" tournaments (throwing an animal carcass into a circle on horseback while other riders knock you off, think Stallone in Rambo III for a clearer picture) , the kite festivals where Hassan's gift for retrieving fallen ones easily earns him the titular monicker or the Kabul Amir returns to several years later as an adult, a city overrun with beggars and buildings with caved in roofs and walls pierced with rocket shells, Hosseini gives you the warts and all view of a once progressive country ravaged by war for the past 25 years.Of course, this being a personal story of Amir's journey, Hosseini doesn't give a historical persepective of events which may cause some bewilderment for those not weaned on Afghanistan's tumultous past. So you may well scratch your head reading a chapter where Amir and Hassan's idyllic evening on July 1973 is suddenly interrupted by gunfire and sirens wailing. The fact that that was the day of the bloodless coup staged by ousted ex-PM Muhammad Daoud to wrest control of power back from PM Muhammad Yusof is never explained. Daoud, cousin to King Zahir Shah who ruled Afghanistan for 40 years, was PM from 1953-1963. Forced to resign over his hard stance with Pakistan, he reclaimed power with the aid of the pro-Moscow communist party PDPA(People's Democratic Party Of Afghanistan). His purging of Islamic parties opposed to him and the assassination of a key PDPA figure resulted this time in a far bloodier coup, the Saur revolution in April 1978. Daoud was killed in the coup and Hafizullah Amin with the aid of the PDPA became the new PM. Splits within the party soon saw Amin at loggerheads with Taraki,leader of the PDPA and another bloody coup in July 1979 had Taraki assassinated. Taraki's assassination angered the Soviet Union who sent troops to Afghanistan in the December of 1979, triggering a 10 year conflict between the Russians and the Mujahideen.It's during this conflict that Amir and his father leave Afghanistan for the US where his father works odd-jobs to put Amir through college. In the Afghan market where they set up stalls to sell knic-knacks, is where Amir glimpses and falls head over heels for the lovely Soraya. Their courtship leading to their eventual betrothal and marriage is an absolutely delightful potrait of the Afghan culture. The chaperone enforced meets, the "what will people say" mentality of Soraya's father and culminating in the lafz( "giving the word") ceremony which bears more than a striking resemblance to orthodox Indian betrothal customs!Hosseini's gift is in sketching characters and their relationships as vividly as the landscape they populate. Amir's guilt, Hassan's devotion and loyalty, Amir's father's strength of character, Amir's relationship with Soraya are expertly conveyed. And in a few short and bold strokes, the writer also manages to hammer home harsh truths, such as the Taliban regime's oppressive hold over a war ravaged country where a woman can be beaten severely for raising her voice. Cheering during soccer matches are not allowed, unless it's for the Taliban executioner who arrives during half-time to stone a couple to death for adultery.The novels' only shortcomings are it's reliances on cinematic devices (especially in the 3rd half)that produces situational coincidences that would make any Bollywood filmmaker proud.But this is a minor gripe in an otherwise searing story of love, loyalty, family and redemption set amidst a landscape often glimpsed only via 30-second video feeds on CNN. Khalid Hosseini opens the doors to his country, people and culture,uniquely Afghan yet endearingly universal. Step in, you won't regret it.