The Kite Runner

This is a New York Times bestseller by Khaled Hosseini.

This book is yet another rendition of Things Fall Apart. It is the story of a coward, and as an extra treat, the main character is Afghan. I can safely promise you, if it were set any where else in the world, the book would not be half as popular as it is.

First off, the language annoyed me. It's obvious that English is not the author's native language, though it is still easier to read than Things Fall Apart. If I were being generous, I would make allowance for broken sentence flow and the occasional odd turn of phrase. But honestly, the whole thing felt sort of fake as I was reading it, almost like the author could have written it perfectly, but instead decided on using the language to scream, "I'm a foreign writer! Don't judge me!"

Nor was the plot really praise-worthy. I found the introduction particularly annoying. The author spends all his time trying to build up to this point in time where "everything changes." Instead of introducing his characters, fleshing out their relationships, he screams that this big moment when "everything changes" is about to come without the readers really even knowing what currently "is." So, eventually we get to the night that "Afghanistan changed forever" then nine pages later the author writes, "And for the most part...life went on as before." Maybe it's just me, but I think this author really needs to take a lesson in cause-and-effect. The end effect is that the author squandered his chance to adequately introduce his characters, and now has to inject little bits of history into the storyline as he goes along.

As for the rest of the plot, it is not incredibly original.

This book pissed me off a little bit. I can easily understand how someone who hasn't read great books could mistake this for a great book, but in my opinion it really just comes off feeling like a fraud.

Anybody could read this book, and as long as they start with low expectations, they may find it worthwhile, if not enjoyable.

Spook Country

This is William Gibson's most recent book and a somewhat sequel to Pattern Recognition.

I would make the argument that this is a book that has to be read slowly or by someone with ADD. At any point, there are three or four separate story lines each written in third person limited, and, unlike most authors who choose to dedicate a good amount of time to follow just one story line (such as in Lord of the Rings or the Inheritance Cycle,) Gibson makes the jump each chapter. Since chapters can be as short as one page, and generally at least under ten, this tendency can quickly wear down the reader. On the other hand, it has the benefit of not leaving the reader hanging too long after each jump, and there is no need to "go back in time" to catch up one story to the next. Whether or not this style is a critique really will depend on the reader.

A second observation, one I just realized applies somewhat to all of Gibson's books, is that the actions of the main characters are not really driving the story's plot. Rather secondary characters and characters that the reader never even see drive the plot; the main characters just get caught up in the flow, and the true story is how these personalities act in their given circumstances. The result of this is that the climaxes of this book are not when the action climaxes, but when the story lines following each character meet.

While I didn't like Spook Country as much as Pattern Recognition, it is still a very good book. Though, also like Pattern Recognition, and as I maybe indicated above, the climax is a little weak, which could definately be a problem for some readers. However, since I am a sucker for well written characters, I don't mind this critique much.

As to who should read this book......I don't actually know that I can define some certain group of people. My guess is that the people who will like this book will be able to read this review and decide for themselves (or maybe I just flatter myself with the quality of my reviews.) Regardless, read it.