' The Kite Runner, By Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner, a story of an unexpected friendship between a wealthy boy and his servant, is written by Khaled Hosseini. Hosseini was born on March 4, 1965, in Kabul, Afghanistan. At the age of 11, his family was relocated to Paris by the Foreign Ministry. By 1980, Hosseini’s family was granted permission to move back to Afghanistan, however because of the invasion of the Soviet army and a communist coup, they never returned to their hometown. Instead they immigrated to San Diego, USA, where Hosseini obtained a medical degree at the University of California San Diego. He is now a full time author, and owns a nonprofit organization called The Khaled Hosseini Foundation. He has published three other books, all which are based on his hometown,
I believe that the author’s background and personal bias influenced the story. For example, Hosseini had always wanted to return to his home country. So, in the book although Afghanistan is a dangerous, he portrays it as home and a place with special memories. Hosseini comes from an affluent family, hence he put in some of his own experiences and outlook of being ‘rich’ into the book.

Summary
The Kite Runner is narrated by Amir, the protagonist of the book, and starts off with his childhood. Living in the rich, diverse area of Kabul, he lived an easy life that consisted of flying kites, and having fun with a faithful servant and friend, Hassan, who he treated like a brother. Despite the lavish lifestyle, Amir is always seeking for acknowledgement from his dad, so when the annual Kite Flying Contest takes place he decides to participate with Hassan, knowing that his dad would be proud if he won. When his kite gets blown away, he orders Hassan to run after it and catch it as he needs it to prove his victory. However on the way, something terrible happens; Hassan gets raped by bullies. And Amir, struck with pure horror,
The two major aspects of the book that I believed was lacking, was the absence of numerous perspectives and the subplots. To start with, the book was too Amir biased. At one point of the story, Amir tries to get rid of Hassan, so he frames him as a thief by planting bill notes under his pillow. As a result Hassan is forced to quit his job as a servant, and leaves. It is obvious that Amir is the person at fault in this situation, however because of the singular point of view, he is portrayed as if he did the right thing for himself. The story is narrated by Amir, so we readers were only entitled to one person’s view. It would have been easier to connect with the characters and expand our outlooks on the story, if it consisted of more alternating perspectives. Furthermore, some of the subplots were too convenient, and too planned in the story. For example, when Amir returns back to Kabul in search for Sohrab, he comes across a beggar on the streets. The beggar, just so happens to be a literature professor who once taught Amir’s mother! The ‘coincidences’ felt too staged and