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.