A kite and a slingshot. These two items were ordinary toys for a boy in the old days in Korea. Very ordinary, indeed. They were so ordinary that now I cannot bring back any extraordinary memories from my childhood.

I flew the stingray kites and shield kites—I preferred the former because it was easier to fly—many times usually in winter. Mostly my kites ended up tangling with the tree top branches which I couldn’t climb to reach. But I forgot lost kites very easily. When I looked up the tree top some time later, I could hardly see any kites. Half of them gone by the gusty winds. And the other half hidden by new green leaves sprouted up from the branches. Then I suddenly realized spring has already sprung.

In spring, I used to go to the small mountain on the back of the village to play with my friends. We picked Y-shape twigs from trees to make slingshots. To get the most power, we tied up our slingshots with the same elastic band that was used to tightening the fabric nappy. Many mothers wondered why the elastic bands were getting shorter and shorter when they changed nappies for the baby.

That’s all I can remember now about kites and slingshots. Quite fond memories but ordinary enough.

However, Kahled Hosseini, an Afghanistan novelist, tells us an extraordinary story about kites and slingshots in his first novel ＜The Kite Runner＞. The story is so powerful that now I cannot think kites and slingshots without reminding these two Afghanistan boys: Amir and Hassan, the main figures of ＜The Kite Runner＞.

Are they friends? Not really. Amir is the son of Baba, rich business man and Hassan is the son of Ali who has been working for Baba family as servant for many years. Ethnic difference between them plays an important role to make these different social positions. Baba is Pashtun who is an Afghanistan descendant and belongs to Sunni Muslim. And Ali is Hazara who is a Mogul descendant and belongs to Shi’a Muslim.

That’s why Amir is always reluctant to say to others that Hassan is his friend even though they play cards together, climb trees together, and fly kite together all the time.

Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words.

Mine was Baba.

His was Amir. My name.

Looking back on it now, I think the foundation for what happened in the winter of 1975—and all that followed—was already laid in those first words. (p 10~11)

Yes, the first words they spoke became their destinies. Amir has suffered and yearned for his father’s affections because he always felt like Baba hated him a little. One day father Baba told his son Amir,

“Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, 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,” Baba said. “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. Do you see?” (p 17)

Father’s saying became a curse to the son because Amir’s mother died giving birth him. Amir felt guilty because he had stolen a life of Baba’s beloved wife. He could not escape father’s curse for nearly 40 years. But surprisingly, father’s curse finally turned out to be ‘one big fucking lie’. And Amir confronted the hidden truth that Hassan was more than friend to him.

Yes, Hassan always loved Amir much more than an ordinary friend did. Even if Hassan knew Amir sometimes played tricks on him, he didn’t have any doubt about their friendship. So, Hassan always stood up for Amir when the neighborhood boys teased him.

One day when the bad boy Assef was about to hit Amir on the street, Hassan bravely stood up for Amir by pointing Assef’s face with his slingshot. On the kite fight tournament day, Hassan ran to the last kite to get it for Amir, saying “For you a thousand times over!” Very loyal, indeed.

However, Amir betrayed Hassan’s loyalty by turning back from the alley where Hassan was being sexually attacked by Assef. Amir forced Ali and Hassan to leave by planting his money and watch secretly under their mattress.

Those are the moments that change the course of a whole lifetime of Amir as well as Hassan. But mercifully, God always gives us another chance to redeem our sins or correct our courses to the right directions.

To Baba, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. To Hassan, it’s accepting his mother who abandoned him as soon as giving birth and came back nearly 25 years later.

And what about Amir? How can he redeem his sins—lies, betrayal and cheating? The second half of ＜The Kite Runner＞ is all about Amir’s journey for redemption in his homeland, Afghanistan.

It is daunting and devastating experiences to follow Amir’s eyes and see inside of the Afghanistan where most of cities and towns were shattered by Russian invasion, civil war and Taliban’s oppression for the last 20 years. It still looks like war zone. No, worse than that. Man sells his leg to feed his family on the street. Horrible! Disgusting!

But Rahim Khan, who was a very close friend of Amir as well as of Baba, asked Amir to go there to redeem his sin, to rescue a boy who was in trouble after his parents had murdered by Taliban. He was Hassan’s only son, Sohrab.

You were right all those years to suspect that I knew. I did know. Hassan told me shortly after it happened. What you did was wrong, Amir jan, but do not forget that you were a boy when it happened. A troubled little boy. You were too hard on yourself then, and you still are—I saw it in your eyes in Peshawar. But I hope you will heed this: A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer. I hope your suffering comes to an end with this journey to Afghanistan. (p 276)

This time, Amir didn’t turn away because he realized this might be the last chance to redeem his sin. He knew it would be “better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.” So, he went to Kabul and stood up for Sohrab to take him.

It’s really hard job for Amir. He nearly came to death. But a slingshot saved his life, again. This time, it was Sohrab. He had a great skill at slingshot which was inherited by Hassan, his father. What a wonderful coincidence! How mysterious is a life!

Amir finally managed to bring Sohrab with him back to his home in San Francisco. However, Sohrab was always in silence like “pushing the OFF button on life, shutting it down, all of it.” It took more than 6 months for Sohrab to overcome the trauma deep inside his mind.

What made him open his mouth and mind? You’re right. That’s a kite. And this time, Amir ran to get it for Sohrab, saying “For you a thousand times over.”

“Do you want me to run that kite for you?”

His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed. The wind lifted his hair. I thought I saw him nod.

“For you, a thousand times over,” I heard myself say.

Then I turned and ran.

It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn’t make everything all right. It didn’t make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of startled bird’s flight.

But I’ll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting.

I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn’t care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and s smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips.

I ran. (p 340)

What a beautiful ending! I have never seen more touching ending than this one except for John Steinbeck’s ＜The Grapes of wrath＞. Now I feel I would never forget this ending. And I’ll never forget Amir’s kite and Hassan & Sohrab’s slingshot as well. Never.

Gripping - this is the most suitable adjective for this extraordinarily great novel. I've read two books written by Khaled Hosseini, The Thousand Splendid Sunshines and The Kite Runner in the mentioned order. These two have helped me a lot with my understanding of the people, culture and history of Afganistan, along with another great book 'The bookseller of Kabul'. So, I would recommend these three novels to anyone interested in Afganistan or human nature which I believe is shared throughout the times and places.

On the last page of this book, when Amir said "For you, over a thousand times over", I felt my eyes wet with love and hopefulness. 

아이는 장염이라 입원해 있는 병실,희미한 불빛 아래서 난 책을 읽기 시작했다.그 전에 어느 정도 읽었지만 다음 내용이 궁금해서 병실에서 읽기 시작한 책을 새벽4시까지 내려놓을 수가 없었다. 다음날 일을 해야 되서 어쩔 수 없이 내려놓으면서도 난 그 다음 내용이 어떻게 될지가 궁금해서 금방 잠을 이룰 수가 없었다.

안타까운 장면에서는 눈물을 흘릴 뻔하기도 하고 속으로 "안돼"를 계속 외치고 있었다. 다른 책들에 비해 이 책은 그래서 금방 읽었다.

베스트 셀러는 이유가 있다. 이 책은 충분히 읽을 만한 가치가 있다. 작가의 다음 소설인 A Thousand Splendid Suns 역시 베스트 셀러이던데 기회가 되면 읽어보고 싶다.