The blurb at the front of
the book says that this "... is a novel about friendship,
betrayal and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between
fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons..." I
agree, but it is also a story about love: the need to be loved or, at
the very least, the need to belong. Moreover, it is a book about
choices and the responsibility that is an integral part of any
choice. It is not always that we want to assume full responsibility
for our choices, and the degree of responsibility we accept or do not
accept will, in turn, often instigate other choices and other degrees
of responsibility.
(Please note: spoilers in this paragraph)
Baba's liaison with Ali's
wife is a choice he makes, but he then weighs his need to take full
responsibility for his son Hassan against the social mores of the day
and place. He straddles the line, hoping that material gifts will, in
some way, obliterate his responsibility on a deeper, emotional level.
He chooses not to tell Amir that he has a half-brother which, in
turn, impacts on the way Amir relates to Hassan, who, by virtue of
his mother, belongs to the Hazara minority which is looked down upon,
especially by the Pashtuns - the ruling class to which Amir and his
father belong. Amir makes a choice not to go to Hassan's assistance in his time of need,
and it takes almost the whole book for him to realize that,
eventually, he has to take responsibility for that action - or lack of action - by taking
care of Hassan's son, Sohrab. It is impossible to run away from the
choices we make.
The book is well written
and it gives an indirect but very poignant picture of Afghanistan
before the Russian invasion (and, of course, before the invasion by
America and her allies). It is obvious that the author has lived in
Afghanistan, because he brings it alive in a manner that is very
difficult to do if one has not actually experienced the smells, the
sights, the nuances of light and the sounds of the land and its
people.
I felt that the story was
extremely well-balanced, and I was very pleased that it did not have
the obviously happy ending that could have been possible, and would
probably have been the case, had the author been completely American
and not only by proxy.
