The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

There's a cliche about the train wreck -- it's so horrible yet so fascinating you can't look away.That's how I found The Kite Runner, which had many disturbing elements in it, episodes that were difficult to read because of the oppression and "violence of the wicked" -- very often violence against children -- and because of the sheer sadness of some of the passages. Yet the book drew me in with its poignant but matter-of-fact prose; its eye-opening look at life in war-torn nations; its touching moments of faithful friendship, and the heart-rending quest for a father's praise.

The story is set in Afghanistan, and the narrator is Amir, who relates how his carefree boyhood was destroyed, first by a personal sin, then by war violence which forces Amir and his father to escape their home to Pakistan, and ultimately come to America, where they try to make a new life in California. Though seeing the violence and oppression of Afghanistan's invaders was terrible, it is his own sin that hangs like a dark cloud over Amir. In his quest for gaining the love and pride of his adored father, Amir makes a choice that hurts (to say it mildly) his most loyal friend and servant, Hassan. Amir's guilt over this becomes a disease that ruins his friendship with Hassan and changes the course of both their lives. As an adult, Amir is given the opportunity to redeem himself of his boyhood failure. He must see if he can claim for his own the courage, faithfulness and integrity that he always admired in his father and in Hassan.

The Kite Runner is moving and often painful. Of course, there are some bright spots: happy memories of a carefree childhood that crop up throughout the book; a new and ardent love that springs up further on in the story; and evidence of Amir truly gaining the respect of his father. But the heaviness never really lets up, because not only are the violent scenes distressing (although it is rarely in-your-face violence, the language is simple and evocative and unmistakable), the presentation of all these lives in the grip of Islamic ideology is saddening as well. On the one hand are the Islamic jihadists; but on the other you have the sympathetic characters like Amir, who must live with guilt, because there is no blood redemption, no sacrifice of love on their behalf by Allah, no salvation by grace. Allah may eventually forgive his followers, but they, like Amir, must earn their own redemption.

I'm glad I read this book, because it is so well-written, and because it showed a way of life that is foreign to me, but that is normal for so many people around the world in Islamic and war-torn countries. However, I would recommend it only to mature and discerning readers.