About the Book:
The Kite Runner is a beautiful yet scary novel by Khaled Hosseini. It is the story of Afghanistan. It covers the good and the tough times of the country; right from when it was independent, then under the Russians and finally when under Taliban. It is the story of a young boy and his servant who ran as a kite runner. It is a tale of how reality bites, how relationships change, and how sometimes, we don't change at all. The most touching part of the novel are the horrifying experiences which the characters go through. The biggest causality in Afghanistan was the lost childhood. Message is clear: the level of destruction that wars and the religious fundamentalism can bring to us is scary.
One warning: don't go after the title. The novel has excessive violence, sex and politics, the things that childhood should remain untouched with. I would recommend this book for adults only.
Is drinking a sin? Baba answers.
Amir asks his father whether drinking is a sin, as taught to him in the class by his religious teacher Mullah Fatiullah Khan. Baba says: (text abridged)
Baba: "First understand this and understand it now, Amir: You never learn anything of value form those bearded idiots."
Amir: "You mean Mullah Fatiullah Khan?"
Baba: "I mean all of them. Piss on the beards of all those self-righteous monkeys. They do nothing but thumb their prayer beads and recite a book written in a tongue they don't even understand. God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands."
Amir: "But Mullah Fatiullah Khan seems nice"
Baba: "So did Genghis Khan; but enough about that. You asked about sin and I want to tell you."
"I mean to speak to you man to man. 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. Do you understand that?
Amir: "No, Baba jan"
Baba: "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. Do you see?"
"There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir. A man who takes what is not his to take, be it a life or a loaf of naan; I spit on such a man. And if I ever cross paths with him, God help him."
"If there is a God out there, then I would hope he has more important things to attend to than my drinking scotch."
That is the bottom line: God has more important things to attend to than your drinking scotch. Quite a realisation for me. (Though I still won't go for it.)
Can you explain?
At one point in the book, it is described that the kite-runner liked a particular story: the story about a father who killed a young man, only to realise later that he was his own son. But Amir didn't sympathise and said:
"After all, didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbour a desire to kill their sons?"
Do you have any idea, what does the author mean by this? Why do all father, "in their secret hearts' harbour", desire to kill their sons?
I have come across this idea for the first time, and am not able to understand. The most I can guess is that fathers may think that because of their sons, their "male dominance" in the family would get challenged. But I am not sure. What do you think?
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