![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KiteRunner.jpg?resize=192%2C300&ssl=1\")
By Khaled Hosseini\n\u00a9 2003, Riverhead Books
\nFile size: 1.3 MB
\n400 pages
\nISBN-13: 978-1101217238<\/p>\n
By Khaled Hosseini
\n\u00a9 2003, Riverhead Books
\nFile size: 1.3 MB
\n400 pages
\nISBN-13: 978-1101217238<\/p>\n
I promised to read six banned books this year. The Kite Runner is my seventh for 2025. Caution: This review contains spoilers\u2014not of the ending, but of the story\u2019s arc. Still, I don\u2019t think that will diminish the book\u2019s impact on readers.<\/p>\n
The Kite Runner is the story of a rich boy and the son of his father\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
This was a bit of a different read for me. Written from the POV of Amir, an Afghan man who\u2014as a boy\u2014was displaced with his father at the end of Afghanistan\u2019s monarchy, it offers insight into that nation\u2019s 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\u2014which I don\u2019t mind doing. Despite this minor challenge and the fact that it isn\u2019t an easy read for many other reasons (read on), I found the book compelling and had a hard time putting it down.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t offer any spoilers on that here.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s practices are very different from those with which I\u2019m familiar, but they are no less beautiful. It was the rest that darkened the book\u2019s pages.
\nAmir\u2019s 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\u2019s more. A lot more. Even though it ends on a hopeful note, this is not a happy story.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s life; he was born in Kabul, forced to take asylum in the U.S. in 1980. At least some pieces of Amir\u2019s 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\u2014and those of the others forced to flee political violence for the sake of their safety and their family\u2019s\u2014should be silenced. That their stories don\u2019t matter. I don\u2019t believe that. I\u2019ll never believe that.<\/p>\n
This book is hard to read. But it is so worth it. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Khaled Hosseini \u00a9 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\u2014not of the ending, but of the story\u2019s arc. Still, I don\u2019t think that will diminish the book\u2019s impact…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-1QK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1277,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/28\/never-give-up-never-surrender\/","url_meta":{"origin":7114,"position":0},"title":"Never Give Up, Never Surrender","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"January 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Right now, I\u2019m about four weeks away from beginning yet another round of revisions on my novel. 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