The Kite Runner

My winter break is coming to a close. While "break" hasn't felt normal, I was fortunate to be able to squeeze in some time to read in between crunching out my final college apps. 

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was published in 2003 but I frankly had never heard of it until now. Hosseini crafts a haunting story, one about a friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant. The plot kept twisting throughout this book and there were often scenes that took me completely by surprise. Others I will never forget. Hosseini's employment of symbolism is particularly potent, everything from the kites to lies to the slingshots. The Kite Runner read quickly and I highly recommend it.

Whether I read nonfiction or fiction, I like to underline lines that stick out to me. I think of these underlined sentences as key ideas that I associate with the book, important themes, or simply well-written sentences that harness the beauty of language. When I revisit books I read a while back, this is also how I remember some of the key scenes that rest at the heart of the story. 

I want to share my favorite section from The Kite Runner. I underlined it at the beginning of the book, but as I quickly discovered, its meaning and significance seep through the entirety of the story. 

"There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft…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" (Hosseini, 17-18).

While I do agree with the narrator that perhaps this viewpoint of the world is a little bit black and white, this line nonetheless stuck with me. I've been thinking about it in a variety of contexts and depending on how I look at the situation, it could apply. This certainly does deviate from traditional examples of sin, like pride, greed, or envy but I think the narrator's father has quite an interesting way of looking at the world, shaped by his experiences and his sense of wrongdoings. 

The writing in The Kite Runner made me feel differently than other fictional books because it's based on historical events and because the emotions Hosseini describes are so human. Simultaneously, it's both a story and a novel that touches the roots of philosophy, begging questions like how to live or forgive. I loved this book so much and the story is definitely one I won't forget.