By Khaled Hosseini© 2003, Riverhead Books
File size: 1.3 MB
400 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1101217238
I promised to read six banned books this year. The Kite Runner is my seventh for 2025. Caution: This review contains spoilers—not of the ending, but of the story’s arc. Still, I don’t think that will diminish the book’s impact on readers.
The Kite Runner is the story of a rich boy and the son of his father’s servant, best friends (of a sort), who are separated by tragedy. The tale sweeps through arcs of friendship, family, devotion, betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, evoking strong emotions on nearly every page, not all of them happy ones.
This was a bit of a different read for me. Written from the POV of Amir, an Afghan man who—as a boy—was displaced with his father at the end of Afghanistan’s monarchy, it offers insight into that nation’s culture, customs, religion, and beliefs that I found truly fascinating. It also gave me a glimpse into what it might be like to be forced not just from your home, but from your nation, your culture, everything that was familiar. The story is told in first-person, using terms and concepts which I sometimes found hard to understand. In some instances, where characters speak in Farsi or other languages, there is an immediate translation to help the reader along. In others, I had to look the words up—which I don’t mind doing. Despite this minor challenge and the fact that it isn’t an easy read for many other reasons (read on), I found the book compelling and had a hard time putting it down.
For me, Amir was not a likeable character, at least in the early part of the book. I found myself grimacing at his cruelties, the way he lashed out at Hassan, his best friend, in small, sometimes subtle ways. I hated him a little for his later betrayal of Hassan, the way he was able to walk away from his own despicable actions as though he were innocent. Granted, he was only a child, not to mention other reasons he did what he did. Still, it was hard to read. Later, Amir matures, growing into a more honorable man. When he is offered a chance at redemption, he takes it, which saved him in my eyes, but I won’t offer any spoilers on that here.
The Kite Runner is also a difficult read for many of the reasons it was banned or challenged in schools every year since 2008. First and foremost, it depicts the beating and sodomy rape of a child in pretty graphic detail. Other reasons given included violence, religious content (Islam), and attempted suicide. Personally, I enjoyed the religious content, even though I am Wiccan; I love learning about other spiritual practices and beliefs, so for me, this was a plus. Islam’s practices are very different from those with which I’m familiar, but they are no less beautiful. It was the rest that darkened the book’s pages.
Amir’s trauma of being forced to flee his beloved homeland as a child was hard. Seeing through his eyes the results of decades of war when he returned was heartbreaking. One scene depicts an execution by the Taliban that turned my stomach. And of course, the rape that is actually the central core of the story is gut-wrenching. But there’s more. A lot more. Even though it ends on a hopeful note, this is not a happy story.
Do I believe it should be banned? Absolutely not. I do think it should have trigger warnings. But Khaled Hosseini lived some aspects of Amir’s life; he was born in Kabul, forced to take asylum in the U.S. in 1980. At least some pieces of Amir’s story are likely based on aspects of real life for Hosseini and so many others like him and his family. If we ban this book, we are effectively saying his story—and those of the others forced to flee political violence for the sake of their safety and their family’s—should be silenced. That their stories don’t matter. I don’t believe that. I’ll never believe that.
This book is hard to read. But it is so worth it. Highly recommended.