The Kite Runner- Willie True

The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
371 Pages
9 out of 10
The Kite Runner is a story about two boys that grow up like brothers, in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir and his friend Hassan, (Amir's servant), play every day all year round, once Hassan's chores are finished. They are the best of friends, even though Amir plays tricks on Hassan such as telling a story the way it is not written just to prove that Hassan cannot read, and Amir is more intelligent. Amir also makes Hassan swear his loyalty through cruel games.
There is a yearly kite tournament every year, kids have to cut other kids kites out of the sky, and the last kite flying wins. To win this tournament is a great prestige. Hassan is the best kite runner, ( the person who goes and catches the kites once they have been cut), and Amir is among the best kite fighters in Kabul. So finally one year Amir is in the final two, and he makes the cut on the other fighters kite, and Hassan is off to the races. Somehow he knows where the kite will land before it shows any direction of where it is traveling too, so he always catches the kite. Obviously Hassan catches the kite, because he knew exactly where the kite was going to land. What Hassan did not know is what would happen to him on the way home. Amir watched something awful happen to Hassan, but did not do anything but watch and then run away in fear for his own personal being. What a coward! When Amir sees Hassan after the horrible deed is done to him, Amir sees, but not right away, that Hassan knows Amir saw what had been done to him. Amir cannot bear to see Hassan, because it reminds him how ashamed he is of himself. So Amir finds a way for Hassan, and Hassan's father Ali to want to move away from Amir.
Now starts the wars in Afghanistan, between the local citizens and the Russians. So Amir and his father make a spirit breaking trip to the free lands of America. In America, Amir and his father live somewhat happily, even though they are no longer rich beyond their dreams. Yet Amir finds a loving wife, and receives a great education and career as a fictional writer. Baba (Amir's father) dies, from cancer a while later, and Amir is devastated. He also going through the hard time of attempting to have kids, which he later finds out that he is not able to provide the proper goods in order to create a living being, if you know what I mean.
One day, Amir receives a letter from his old friend from which he knew when he lived in Kabul. This Man was like a second father to Amir, his name was Rahim Khan. He had been there for Amir and now that he was dying, Amir had to be there for him. Rahim also mentions that there is a way he could fix what he had done and make things right again. This was disturbing because Amir had told nobody what he had seen and not done, and yet he knew what happened all those years ago. So Amir flew straight out to see Rahim. When Amir got there, Rahim handed him a letter that Hassan had written to him years ago. It said that Amir would be his friend for life, and that he wished that Amir could see his son, Sahib. When Amir was done rereading the letter, Rahim told him that Hassan and his wife had been brought out into the street and shot in the head by the Taliban, who now ruled Afghanistan pretty much. Rahim also requested one last favor of Amir, to go and retrieve Sahib from Kabul and take him to a good American foster family that lived near Rahim. This was the way to make things right again. So Amir excepted the request, (like he had a choice to begin with), and set off to find Sahib.
Afghanistan was completely different now from the way Amir had remembered the joy filled city. When Amir finds Sahib, he has a run in with an old enemy, who happens to be high in the Taliban. Amir almost dies, but is saved by an unexpected act of righteousness. He ends up in the hospital not able to walk for a while, and his jaw is wired shut. Yet he is still alive. When he is well enough to leave, he goes as soon as he can. He soon finds out that there is no such American family that Rahim had told him about. Now Amir has to make a big decision. And just as I assume Rahim Khan planned it, Amir decides to take Sahib home with him. After finding out that getting Sahib to America was going to be harder than coming up for the cash for the flight to the States, Sahib commits attempted suicide. Luckily he ends up ok, and Amir takes him back to the U.S., though Sahib will not say more than a word. There is a glimmer of hope that everything will end up alright at the very end of the book, but that's for you to read for yourself. This is one of my all time favorite books, and I recommend it to anybody out there that has ever picked up a book. Seriously, everybody needs to read this book.