Thanks to everybody who participated!! I hope you enjoyed reading The Kite Runner
I found this review by Stephen Deusner at bookreporter.com and thought I would offer some excerpts from his harsh criticism as further food for thought. (I agree with some of it, but it never kept me from being satisfied with the story)
He writes:
Despite Hosseini's occasionally absorbing evocation of Kabul, this first section has all the trappings of a typical American coming-of-age story, right down to the narrator's whiny self-incrimination and the air of funereal nostalgia. But THE KITE RUNNER isn't even an especially compelling coming-of-age story, and its adherence to a set of rules is unfortunate considering Hosseini's characterization of Afghans as "an independent people."
Peppering his rhythmless prose with awkward plot contrivances and nonliterary oversimplifications, Hosseini includes all the familiar plotlines and the archetypal characters of the coming-of-age story --- the distant father, the neighborhood bully, the oppressed minority who retains his honor and dignity. As a result, the first act never veers from the predictable and the tedious.
Full of keen observations and fine-tuned prose, the second act of THE KITE RUNNER succeeds where the first act fails, but Hosseini is unable to sustain that focus into the final section, which picks up with the fateful telephone call from the first chapter. As Amir traverses his home country and witnesses the horrors of the ruling Taliban, THE KITE RUNNER attains the spirited intensity of a taut espionage thriller, only without the predictability that the good guys will prevail. But a glaring plot contrivance stretches the novel's credibility, and the conclusion descends into undisguised sentiment, which is intended as cathartic but comes across as scripted and manipulative.
barbara at 1:04 PM
