Review

It is a gripping story about betrayal to guilt to redemption. The book is about two Afghan boys named Amir, a Sunni muslim from a wealthy family and Hassan, a Shi'a Muslim from a poor family.In Afghanistan, the Sunni Muslims were called Pastun, a socially superior group than the Hazaras, the Shi'a Muslims.

The two young boys lived in Kabul and they will participate in the Kite-running competition, their favourite past time.  But later that year, a war approaches. Amir betrays his his best friend, Hassan. This thought haunts him later in his life.
Amir and his father leave Afghanistan. They move to America.

He is later granted redemption(but not completely) in the last chapter. But still, Afghanistan is not as it used to be before . Amir still hopes for the well being of the war-torn Afghanistan.

It is a truly painful story.

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Blog #5

Amir,Farid and Sohrab came to Islamabad.The hotel rooms were clean Amir remembers the time he had promised to buy Hassan's family a colour T.V .Amir took the pills and slept when he woke up Sohrab wasn't there .After searching for him for a long time ,he finally finds him in the Mosque.Sourabh thinks that he is sinful because he hurt Assef. Amir says that Assef deserved it.
Amir asks Sourabh if he would like to come to America.Sourabh says nothing .
They have a conversation after a week Amir tells Sohrab that he and Hassan were brothers .Sohrab says that his father told him that he had no brother .Sourabh says that going to America scares him because he has to learn English so fast and he is scared what if Amir and his wife get tired of him. Amir tells Soraya that he is bringing Sohrab home with him.
Amir encounters problems at the American embassy, finding out that adopting Sohrab will not be as easy as he initially anticipated.
Soraya mentions that Kaka Sharif, her uncle, has contacts in the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) who might be able to help.
Faisal, the immigrant lawyer goes through the various options with Amir, with the most promising but by no means guaranteed being the placing of Sohrab in an orphanage and the filing of an orphan petition.
Soraya calls Amir to tell him that now Sohrab can go to America without going to the orphanage. When Amir goes to tell Sohrab about it, he finds him bleeding and unconscious in the bath tub.

Sohrab is taken to the emergency room. Amir turns to the prayer.
Amir realizes then that he does believe in a God, and he asks God to forgive him and he promises to pray every day if only God will save Sohrab’s life.
The next day Amir returns and finds Sohrab in a new room. He is awake, but under constant suicide watch. Amir asks him how he feels, but Sohrab says nothing, and his eyes look lifeless.

They come to America. Sohrab is quiet there. Taheri asks Amir why he had got this Hazara boy. Amir explains him about Hassan and Sohrab and Sohrab is his nephew. Amir warns him for calling him the Hazara boy.

After many days, they finally do kite running. Amir buys Sohrab a kite.

Sohrab hesitantly takes the kite string. Amir tells Sohrab that his father had a great passion in kite flying.He uses Hassan's method to cut the string.Amir says 'For a thousand times over.'

Now Amir had redeemed himself. I think that now the redemption has finally come. 

Blog #4

Amir understands why Baba used to give presents to Hassan. Amir thinks that he is responsible for Hassan's death. If he wouldn't have driven Hassan and Ali out of the house, then they would be in America.Amir finds Rahim Khan praying, and he tells him that he will go to Kabul and find Sohrab. Amir takes the help of a man named Farid to drive him to Kabul.
Amir has to wear a fake beard  as beards are required for men under Taliban law.In Afghanistan, he starts to see warfare and poverty. He feels like a tourist in his own country. Farid points to an old man dressed in rags and says that this is the real Afghanistan, and Amir has always been a tourist. Farid thinks that Amir is returning to sell off his father’s land and then go back to America. They reach Jalalabad that night and stay with Farid’s brotherWahid. The family is poor. Wahid asks Amir why he has returned to Afghanistan, but Farid interrupts and says sneeringly that Amir is probably there to sell his land and bring the money back to America. But then Amir explains that he is here to find the son of his illegitimate half-brother and bring him back to Peshawar to be taken care for. Wahid’s wife serves dinner to Amir and Farid. Wahid says that he and his family ate earlier, so they do not join the guests. As he eats, Amir notices Wahid’s three young sons staring at his wristwatch. He gives them the watch as a present, but they quickly lose interest in it.When they reach Kabul, Amir does not even recognize it as his old home.
That night he dreams that he executed Hassan.
He finds Farid arguing for food. He finds out that the children weren't staring at his watch but his food.He puts some money under the mattress. They find beggars all around and there were no trees. There are no more kites, and the streets smell like diesel instead of lamb kabob.
A Taliban truck approaches with a few bearded men having guns.He stares at the truck so Farid warns him. Amir also warns him. When he talks to the beggar, he finds out that the beggar was also a teacher in the university like his mother.
Amir and Farid find the new orphanage where Sohrab is supposed to be. The director, Zaman, first pretends he has never seen Sohrab. Only after Amir explains that he is Sohrab’s half-uncle and reveals some defining details about Sohrab does Zaman says Sohrab is no longer there, and it may be too late for him.The Taliban had taken the child.
They reach Baba's house in Kabul.The trees were leafless. The paint was peeling out. The old pomegranate tree was still there with something carved on it 'Amir and Hassan. The sultans of Kabul.'
It was time to go.
That night Fad asked him about America. Amir says,"Every home had a TV. Every TV had a remote and you could receive up to 500 channels."
The other day, they reach the Ghazi Stadium. Amir saw the Talibs killing two blindfolded  people by throwing stones at them.
They meet the Talibs in Wazir Akbar Street's big house. He sees Sohrab dance. Sohrab looked just like Hassan as this age.
Amir finds out that the Talib official is Assef. When he asks to take Sohrab, he says that he has to fight. Assef puts on his brass knuckles.
Amir gets badly hurt when Sohrab saves him by shooting a slingshot in Assef's eye.
Amir is in the hospital now. He had a lip injury, just like Hassan.
He reads Rahim Khan's note. Rahim Khan said that by saving Sohrab he could redeem himself.

Amir has turned towards redemption. I think that now Amir can redeem himself.The story has turned its path.

Blog #3

Amir grows more mature. Amir constantly thinks about Soraya. Amir meets her at the Taheri's booth while her father is away. He greets her with her stories. Soraya's mother Jamilla interrupted their conversation. Amir looks polite as he greets her as Khanum Taheri.

Baba catches bad cold which is finally diagnosed to a lung cancer.The doctors try to prolong his life by chemotherapy, but Baba refuses.

Baba grows weaker. One day Baba collapses at the flea market. He is taken to the hospital. The waiting room gets filled with Afghans.

Amir tells Baba that he wants to marry Soraya.Baba talks to Taheri. They both agree. Soraya tells Amir that she once ran away with an Afghan man. Amir his still afraid to her about Hassan.

The next night the house is full of people. The wedding takes place.

After a few days, Baba thinks that now Amir is grown. He dies while he was sleeping. There is no one to give Amir way. Amir cries for the first time after Baba's death.

Amir and Soraya buy their own apartment. In the summer of 1998, he finishes his first novel.

Next year, the Soviets leave. They try to have a baby. They go to different specialists and find that it is not possible. They have to adopt.




June 2001




Rahim Khan is in Pakistan and is very sick. He calls Amir to Pakistan. Rahim Khan says that he is dying.

The talk turns about the Taliban Rahim Khan says that the Taliban was thought to bring peace, but it didn't.

Rahim Khan says that he lived in their house. He tells him the-the reason he called him, to tell him that Hassan lived with him.He tells him the story.

1986-

Ali had been killed by a land mine two years ago. Hassan's wife was pregnant.When Rahim Khan asked them to come to Kabul, they refused. When Rahim Khan tells them that Baba is dead, Hassan weeps.
The next morning they come to Kabul.They live in the servant's hut. Farzana gives birth to a stillborn girl.
Farzana becomes pregnant again.One day that same year Sanaubar, Hassan’s mother arrives.Sanaubar delivered Farzana’s baby, a boy that they named Sohrab after the character from “Rostam and Sohrab,” the story Hassan and Amir loved as children. After four years, Sanaubar dies.
By then it was 1995, the Soviets were gone. Hassan taught Sohrab to read and write so that he would not grow up illiterate like his father. In the winter, Hassan took Sohrab kite running.
In 1996, however, the Taliban took over, and they banned kite fighting and Hassan knew that their regime meant danger for Hazaras – and two years later, the Taliban massacred the Hazaras.

Amir asks if Hassan is still at Baba’s house. Rahim Khan does not answer but hands Amir an envelope. There in  the photograph of Hassan as a grown man in the envelope.
Rahim Khan tells him that Hassan and his wife were killed by the Taliban. His son Sohrab was in an orphanage.
Rahim Khan delivers one last piece of information – Ali was sterile. Amir asks who Hassan’s father was then, but then he understands that it was Baba. He has to go. Sohrab is his nephew.

Amir was saved by Hassan. Now Amir has to save Hassan's son, Sohrab.The secret is revealed. Hassan s Baba's son.

Blog #2

Amir thought Hassan was wrong. There was a monster in the bed of the lake, and it had grabbed Hassan and dragged him to the bottom of the lake. Amir didn't speak to Hassan for a week. He wrote stories and read a book every couple of days.When Hassan asked him to play with him, he denies. It seems like Amir s feeling guilty for the fact that Hassan had been loyal to him by saving him from Assef, but he was not able to save him.
When the winter was over, Amir and Baba were planting turnips. Amir asked baba that if he would get a new servant. Baba got angry and scolded him.
In school, Amir's mind always returned to the alley and Hassan's blood.
Amir turned thirteen that summer of 1976. He guessed that in this birthday of his maximum people had come. Amir, his father, Mahmood, and  his mother, Tanya had come too. Baba thanked them for coming. Rahim Khan gifted Amir a leather bound notebook. Ali gifted him a book on old Persian stories .
Amir takes his watch and some of Afghan bills and planted it under the carpet. He acted as if he had lost it. When Baba asked Hassan about it, he said that he had stolen it, Hassan's final sacrifice. Amir felt as if he's been slapped. Amir thought about what Baba had said, When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
Hassan and Ali said that they will leave.Baba forgives them.But still they left.They went to Hazajat to their cousin.

March 1981

Baba and Amir were in a truck.Afghanistan is under the control of Afghan communists and Russian soldiers. They have turned everyone against each other, and people inform on each other for money.Russian soldiers arrived to increase the price of passing through. Baba stands up and tries to shame the Russian soldier, but the soldier says there is no shame in war. The soldier threatens to shoot him. Amir tries to get Baba to sit down, but he pushes Amir away. Just before the soldier shoots, another Russian stops him. The driver says that his brother's truck had broken a week ago. Baba strangles him until a woman stops him. They wait in the basement with other refugees.Amir recognizes Kamal among them, but he looks sickly and old. Amir overhears Kamal’s father explaining what happened to him – four men caught Kamal while he was out alone and raped him.
Karim finally finds a way to get the refugees to Pakistan, in a fuel truck. It is difficult to breathe. Kamal died in the poisonous fumes. Kamal's father shoots himself.

1980s

Baba and Amir have been living in Fremont, California for almost two years. Baba works at a gas filling station. Amir graduated high school. America has become a place for Amir to bury the ghosts of his past – his memories of war-torn Kabul and his guilt for his betrayal of Hassan.The next summer, in 1984, Baba buys an old van and spends his Saturday filling it up with purchases from garage sales. Then on Sunday, Baba and Amir set up a booth at a flea market and sell everything for a profit.One Sunday Baba introduces him to a man named General Taheri, who is very traditional and formal in his appearance. Baba tells him that Amir will be a great writer someday, and Taheri insists that Amir should appreciate Baba, who is a great man.On the way home Amir asks Baba about Soraya. Amir falls in love.

Amir had become mature. Amir has betrayed his friend in a lot of ways. He left his friend.. 

Blog #1

The book is in first person narrated by Amir, the major character in the book. Amir is the son of Baba, a wealthy businessman. In the beginning section,  Amir describes his childhood with Hassan, the son of Ali. Amir is a Sunni Muslim, but Hassan is a Shi'a. Amir lived in a big house while Hassan and Ali lived in a small hut. Amir's mother had died after giving birth to Amir. Amir's mother used to teach in college. Hassan's mother was a Hazara and she went with the gypsy after giving birth to Hassan. Baba loves both Hassan and Amir equally. But Amir wants to be superior.

Once when they were playing they carved 'Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul' 

Amir reads better than Hassan and sometimes mocks him when he doesn't know the meanings of words. Assef is the son of a Pashtun father and a German mother and believes that Pashtuns are superior to Hazaras, despite himself not being full Pashtun. He is a neighborhood bully and has a brass knuckles. Once, he chose to torment Amir, but Hassan saves him.
Amir liked writing stories. Rahim Khan, one of Baba's friend says that when he will grow older, he will become a famous writer. 
It was a cold day. Amir and Hassan played panjpar. Amir killed Hassan's ten of diamonds. Hassan had made Amir win. On that night, Hassan had a dream about a monster. Hassan tells Amir about his dream,

On the day of kite running, Hassan and Amir cut eleven kites.They win. Assef and his friends rape him and take away the kite. 

I feel that Assef was not a good character. He liked violence and liked to hurt people.
Amir could not help his friend Hassan in his rape. I think this shows how coward he is. Hassan had saved Amir from Assef
Everything is turning from bad to worse.