Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Kite Runner

Bought this last week, but hadn't get the time to sit down n really read it. Its actually a real experience of the Afghanistan people, how they deal with their everyday life, move to other country, their culture and their religion. I love this book!

My teacher used to tell me that reading is to at least appreciate all the pain, experiences and life, on other people. Its a lifetime experience of a man, put in a book, for someone to read. And yea, The Kite Runner is a lifetime experience of an Afghanistan name Amir.

I am a Christian, and live in a Muslim country, but i only have a slight idea on what muslim is. For me, its just a Mosque, Friday prayer and halal. But reading The Kite Runner, open my mind that the Muslim itself actually has different kind. I mean just like Christianity, we have Protestant, catholic.

Amir as the main character, comes from wealthy family, and they have a servant, a Hazara a shia Muslim. Amir and his family is a Pashtun, a Sunni Muslim. There's a lil bit difference in Sunni and shia but, they still get along together.

After the Soviet invasion, Amir's father took Amir to America and sought asylum. They were no longer wealthy and life as immigrants was hard. But eventually Amir finished college and became a successful writer.

The Kite Runner is a tale of friendship, betrayal and redemption. It is about human's struggles with sin and family traditions. It is about personal and cultural honor and shame. It is an old-fashioned kind of novel that really sweeps you away, as one review says.

And i love Amir's father quote : 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.

Being ruled by Russian then Taliban Baba says : The Mullahs want to rule our souls... and the Communists tell us we don't have any.

The book is a really great experience to open one's mind on how we see things. To understand things, especially when you embrace something that you don't even understand its history :)...

1 comment:

Gallivanter said...

I enjoyed this book definitely. His other book, "A Thousand Splendid Suns", is similar but not as good, because you expect more after reading the debut.

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