Overwhelming Emotions with The Kite Runner

 As always, early mornings (we're talking 3 to 5 am time period) would be the perfect time to write, at least that's how I find for myself, especially after you have just finished reading The Kite Runner!

It's 4.12 am. My eyes are puffy from all the crying for the past hour prior to finishing up the book.

My takeaways from the novel, very unstructured and (hopefully you'll find it) simplified:

We humans are evil creatures. We do evils be it on lower ground - to your friends, siblings, etc - and on the higher level, killing the entire country and the generation, current and future, as a whole. We are greedy. Sadly, massively greedy. Never enough. And life is complex too. We will find us in numerous instances torn between morally conflicting decisions, like do I tell her she got a booger, or do I simply proceed with your business assuming the strange woman will eventually see herself in the mirror and fix it herself, saving her from public embarrassment from a total stranger? I imagine myself revisiting this post and wondering how did I come up with such lame example, lol, to I wish to be pardoned.

Family is another emotional element in the novel. While growing up fatherless due to political turmoil is not closely equivalent to separated parents even a bit, the tiny part of me relates very minutely to how the experience is like. Now imagine a fatherless nation. Even to imagine is burdening emotionally. Stealing the kids' childhood is another. Imagine being forced to grow up before you're supposed to.

Hosseini's vivid and detailed story-telling made me feel like I was there with Amir and Hassan, living the peaceful colorful life there was in Afghanistan, a place I have not imagined being in, let alone visiting. He takes me there, surfing through the mix and twist of wondrous, warm, struggle, traumatic, joyous, surprise from the lens of Amir's view. Nothing good can war bring to any of the once lively and vibrant nation, ever. 

Many parts struck me, but one that significantly did was when Amir first arrived in the country coming back from the US and said to Farid how he feels like a tourist when in the actuality, that was the country he grew up in. Not the same, but in a way is parallel to counter-culture shock which I, admittedly shameful to admit, has gone through once when I was abroad for 2 years then being back again in my own country. Everything seems wrong to me: why are the people not holding the door, why are they not saying thank you, why the invasive extensive personally questions despite me not knowing who the hell are you, frustrating public transport, to name a few. It struck me that I was privileged enough to experience that, but it reminds me to not dismiss the opportunity this land has laid out for me, where I am from originally.