When I travel, I am paranoid about running out of reading material. Especially on a trip like the one we just took where we are out in the bush with little night life. So, rather than chucking it after the first 25 pages or so, I read the entire hideous mess that is The Kite Runner.
Holy Crap, where do I begin? First, it is a first person account of a great writer written by a crap writer. Example: "All my life had been spent in the company of men, but tonight I would learn what it is like to lie with a woman". In the words of one of my heroes (John McEnroe), you cannot be serious!!
Second, every single plot advancement is done by means of a virtually impossible, melodramatic, coincidence. I am not joking. Every single one. For example, the protagonist's life goes awry when he fails to prevent his servant/friend/half-brother from getting buggered by a blond haired, blue-eyed, Afghani neo-nazi boy who has just happened to trap his friend alone somewhere in Kabul on the most important day of the protagonist's life. And when the protagonist returns to Kabul to rescue the son of said friend, the head Talibani in charge is the SAME NEO-NAZI guy. And HE'S BUGGERING THE BUGGEREES SON!!!!! Its really quite mind boggling.
This book has over 1900 customer reviews on Amazon with a 4.5 out of 5 star rating. I just don't see how that is possible.
4 comments:
There's worse. For your consideration: The Bone People.
This was the Duke freshman book two years ago...if you say anything against the book, you would get criticized for "insensitivity".
http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/832
UnSuggestions for The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini
7,224 members (32 more popular); 167 reviews; average rating 4.27 stars. Members with the book have have a total of 1,928,767 books in their libraries (see good suggestions).
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