"For you, a thousand times over"

A recurring line of promise in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, succeeding on its last utterance to leave me with a haunting sense of devastation.

A novel assigned under one of the modules I enrolled myself into at school, and I am so glad that I decided not to brush this one off with Sparknote's summary. Pressed!! For!! Time!! with all the readings/assignments/presentations already lining up in my academic calendar, but I decided that I MUST write about this novel, even if only a brief review (hopefully not TOO gross an injustice to this masterpiece), because I do not want to ever forget how this book has moved me. The Kite Runner has to be one of the best novels I've laid my hands on in these recent years.

Published in 2014, this novel found its place on the "best-sellers" shelves not only in local bookstores, but apparently in many other countries as well. Unfortunately, I was too much of a judge-y ass to dismiss this novel after realising that the story is set in Afghanistan, and is about two boys named Amir and Hassan. (Clearly at that time, I had trust issues with Asian Literature. TERRIBLE Eurocentrism coming from an Asian myself T.T) BUT, I cannot be more thankful for having chanced upon this novel once again, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good read.

Apart from the many reasons why I've come to love The Kite Runner so much, one of the biggest grip on my sentiments came from heart-wrenching fact that it is a novel undeniably written in realistic, socio-political conditions. Ideas of supremacy of race and nation reflected in the novel are conditions that persist up till today. How we judge humanity based on their modernity (whereby 'modern' is judged within the premises of advancements in science, secularism and language) likewise falls on our historical continuum.

It is not only the very skin color, an ahistorical and essential identity that is irremovable from one's existence, that affects an individual. Sadly, within the familiarity of similar skin, hierarchy continues to exist on the divide between rich and poor, educated and uneducated, religious and non-religious, etc.

Hassan becomes the emblem for sacrifice in the novel, while Amir the self-privileged coward who constantly sacrifices Hassan for the sake of his desires. What haunts me is Hassan's unwavering loyalty (I would even say BLIND) and complete willingness to (literally) get f**ked for Amir. "For you, a thousand times over" becomes a line so wretched in its context and nature of proclamation that I feel the greatest uneasiness just considering the possibility of such 'friendship' to exist, especially when 'friendship' is understood on different terms by both boys.

A novel that expresses unforgivingly the conditions of love, loss and betrayal; its all-too-real occurrences remind me of my privileged oblivion, separated with ignorance from an existing world that tires from these scars and traumas, but cannot escape from the life that they are born in.

"For you, a thousand times over" --

A line that I will keep close, as a reminder of our humanity and the ethics that we must retain despite our assumed modernity and supremacy.