"New Book Highlights Afghans"

A new fiction title, “The Kite Runner”, recently caught my attention because it is one of only a handful of recent books about Afghanistan. Whether it’s because of the religion, the politics, or just the social conditions in general, not much in the way of popular library materials has come from that area.

Several years ago, at the instigation of a son who had just finished the book, I read the James Michener novel, “Caravans”. This early Michener epic takes place in Afghanistan in the mid-1940s and recounts the search for a young debutante who marries an Afghan who had been studying in the U.S. The couple moves back to the groom’s country and the bride disappears. A young American foreign diplomat is sent in search of her.

I was reading this book, at the time of our national calamity of “9/11”. In his book, Michener, who had traveled in Afghanistan in the early 1950’s, warns about problems faced by that country because of the uneducated and fanatical Mullahs and religious fundamentalism.

“The Kite Runner”, written by Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan expatriate now living in the United States, takes place in Kabul in the mid-1960s and then jumps ahead to the late 1990s. The novel’s main character, Amir, is the only son of a wealthy importer and politician. Amir’s playmate since he could first remember was Hassan, the son of the servant of Amir’s father.

The story is told through the voice of Amir, who, along with his father, had escaped the ruthless Russian occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980’s and 90’s. Amir describes his childhood life in a gated mansion in Kabul, his love for American movies, particularly westerns, and his companionship with Hassan, from the servant class, who was his best friend. The boys were partners in the Afghan sport of kite flying battles—a passionate public sport in the pre-Taliban period. It was Hassan’s job to tend the spool of string and to run after the kites that Amir had cut from the sky to bring them back to his friend as trophies.

Amir recounts how, as he grew older, he became class conscious and even embarrassed about Hassan’s loyalty to him. One day following a glorious kite warring contest, Amir cowardly betrays his friend. This betrayal haunts him for years and leads him to gladly leave Kabul for the United States so that he can better forget his cowardly actions. Years go by, Amir becomes a physician and gets married. He and his wife are living in San Francisco, when an Afghan friend of his father calls him back to Afghanistan during the Taliban period, just prior to the U.S.-led invasion, to locate and rescue the son of his childhood friend and to atone for his lack of character as a youth.

This beautifully written book should have a wide audience. The exotic locale and the vivid descriptions of Kabul both before the Taliban and during the chaos of the Mullahs’ rule make for interesting reading. The author’s description of life under religious persecution is so chilling that it may give the reader pause to reflect upon the good our nation is doing in bringing stability and democracy to the citizens of Afghanistan.

Recent donations to the Columbus Library Foundation includes a donation of 15% of the one-day receipts from our local Runza Restaurant and a donation from the “Tables with a Twist” Committee. Connie Hellbusch and Sally Hansen, both members of the “Between the Lines” book club, presented memorials in honor of Pam Zehring. Donations in memory of Bernard (Bernie) Johansen were made by Virginia Gerber and Terrie Ewert.