Book Review of Kite Runner

Have you ever been good-sad? 

My wife is really into the Enneagram lately (for the uninitiated, it's a personality test focused on your motivation for living and behaving the way you do). Like, she's REALLY into it. I've learned some by osmosis, and I learned that number Four on the Enneagram is a kind of person who doesn't mind being sad or focusing on sad things. In some ways, a Four enjoys being a little melancholic.

I have no idea if Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, is a Four, but his book feels like it. Part of the reason one might enjoy being a little sad is because you know you're sad for a reason. Like, "this sadness will bring about good things, because what's making me sad is true and truth brings out good things."

So in Kite Runner, the main character is a man with a guilty conscience and no, [spoilers] he never clears his conscience. He makes a few brave decisions in succession toward the end and sort of goes back to being who he was. It feels very much as sad as real life, but this sadness feels like it teaches a true lesson: you might go your whole life having done nothing brave. I wonder if this main character is an indictment against American foreign policy in the Author's original conception. Maybe not. Maybe it's just an interesting plot-line.

There are more lessons: Sadness from sexual abuse reminds us that bad things happen and the responsibility to get involved cannot be put off until tomorrow. Sadness from social class disparity reminds us that people are worthy of respect and equal treatment. Sadness from war reminds us that Afghanis are people, too (how silly that we should have to be reminded - and yet I had to write it).

The Kite Runner is a very good kind of sad. And by the way, I'm an Enneagram Seven - the one that loves fun and finds any departure from fun as a departure from sense. And I needed The Kite Runner. You probably do, too.

THE KITE RUNNER: 5/5, of course.

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