"The Kite Runner" by Kaled Hosseini

"The Kite Runner" by Kaled Hosseini.  Two boys living in Afghanistan are best friends at a time when war lords reign and threaten the classes.

I enjoyed the novel's great characterization of the two young boys: Amir and Hassan, and the initial love Amir shares with his servant/brother.  Amir takes the time to read to Hassan as Hassan does not know how to read, nor is he allowed to receive a proper education, as it is not extended to Hazaras.  I enjoyed this novel as it discusses the meaning of what it really takes to uphold a promise.

 The character of Amir upholds a promise by leaving America, even though he is a successful writer there, in order to save his best friends son.  He agrees to go back to a dangerous and complicated land after receiving a call that explained to him that his best friend died, and the warlords had captured his son. He must go back to a land to retrieve the son.  

How many of us would have taken such a risk like the character of  Amir does?

In my belief, most of us wouldn't.  In fact, many of us deny our own family members safety.  Even those people that are within our own communities.  Those people who don't even live hundreds of miles away are not  even granted safety and security.  Yet here is this man who goes back to a land, for which he is unfamiliar with; A land for which he only knew as a child, in order to save his best friend's child. 

The movie "Kite Runner" does great justice to the novel, in that the setting of the movie allows the audience to know the extreme conditions revalent in Afghanistan.  The setting shows the hot desserts and the women in Burqas (the arabic meaning of garment that covers a woman's body)The setting shows the remote conditions for which one must travel on unpaved roads, in rusty jeeps and cars that can barely be called "get-away-cars). 

 The setting depicts an arena in Afghanistan similar to the historical, Greek Colloseum, in that like the Greek gladiators who were thrown to fight to the death, similarly Afghans were thrown into the arena and humiliated in front of their peers and society where they would later be tried and punished for crimes.