In The Kite Runner there is a complex contradiction between fiction and non-fiction. The story itself and it's characters are fictional, but the memoir Amir writes is non-fiction. To Amir it is all too real. Just the mere fact that it's possible to write a book that is both fiction and non-fiction is a new idea. It is hard for some writers to wrap their heads around this idea and then master it. The author, Khaled Hosseini, does an exceptional job of using this new idea. If a friend were to ask you what this book was about you would have to pause and think before answering. You would have to choose your words carefully and try your best to make sure everything fit together how it is supposed to. The point of writing like this is to get you to think. To understand this story, is to understand somebody's life, whether they're real or not. If you think logically, to understand someone's entire life would be extremely difficult and complex. This is only a portion of Amir's life we are attempting to comprehend, and it should be complicated.
Some authors make their character's lives simple. They are simple and boring. In any good story the character makes mistakes. In an interesting story they make mistakes with complex results and that take time to fix. In an average or below-average read the character makes a mistake and 'poof'! It's magically fixed with a simple "I'm sorry", or something along the lines of that. Amir makes a simple mistake: running from Hassan. The healing and fixing of this mistake is complicated in every way imaginable. It takes a toll on his emotional health, it affects his relationships with Babba, Ali and especially Hassan. It basically affects every aspect of his life. I might even go as far as to say his childhood ended at that moment. Very few parts of this situation and it's outcomes are straightforward or 'black-and-white'. Reality is the same way. The choices you make and the outcomes you get from those choices are rarely simple. A lot of books make their character's lives simple and clean-cut. In real life, nothing turns out like that. I hate to be a realist, but it's the truth.
Since I may have not convinced all of you, I'll prove my point with a few examples. Let's say a man decided to drive while talking on his cell phone. He gets in an accident with a family- a mom, a dad and two kids. The entire family is in the hospital but he is fine. He'll be asking himself, "Was the call that important?", "Why would I be so stupid?", and other similar questions. The outcome is much more complicated than the original act itself. Another less dramatic scene would be not studying for a test. Let's say you don't study for your German test. You bomb the test and you had an 82% in that class. Now you have a 78% and the quarter is almost over. If you get a C on your report card, you'll be grounded. The consequences for not studying for that test had implications beyond getting a bad grade on the actual test.
Like I said before, The Kite Runner is not in any way a 'black-and-white story'. There are complex situations and outcomes, opinions for you to form, situations to interpret and new ideas to ponder. It sounds just like real life to me. Hosseini did an excellent job of bringing deeper aspects of reality into his book. I applaud that and hope to read books of equal comparison in the future.
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