La Petite Américaine's Reviews > The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner
by
by
![59329](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p2/59329.jpg)
La Petite Américaine's review
bookshelves: sucked, middle_east, worst-garbage-i-ve-ever-read, rants
May 11, 2008
bookshelves: sucked, middle_east, worst-garbage-i-ve-ever-read, rants
After pondering long and hard, I'm going to try now to articulate just what it was about this book that sucked so much, why it has offended me so greatly, and why its popularity has enraged me even more. This book blew so much that I've been inspired to start my own website of book reviews for non-morons. So let us explore why.
First, let's deal with the writer himself. Hosseini's father worked for Western companies while in Afghasnistan. While daddy (who I am guessing, from Hosseini's tragic account of the "fictional" father, never accepts his son) worked and got wealthy, normal Afghans lived their lives. When war broke out, Hosseini's father was offered a safe position in Iran. Just before the revolution in Iran, his father was offered another job in Paris, before finally taking the family to the USA.
That's fine ... some of us are lucky in life. Others are not. What bothers me, though, is that The Kite Runner is so obviously what Hosseini WISHES had happened.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Hassan character really did exist in some form or another. Surely Hosseini had a friend/sometimes playmate/servant who was left behind while Hosseini's powerful family escaped. Surely, Hosseini feels guilty for leaving his homeland by simple privilege while the less fortunate were left behind to fight the Soviets, the Mujahideen, and then the Taliban. And surely, Hosseini wishes he were some flawed hero that didn't simply get lucky. He wishes he'd majored in English, as the protagonist does, and published fiction books instead of becoming a run-of-the-mill doctor; he wishes his father had depended upon him in the USA as happens in the book, instead of getting by just fine as a rich exile with a daddy-doesn't-love-me complex; he wishes he could go back to Afghanistan, risking his life to make ammends for his shitty and cowardly past, instead of remaining a wealthy outsider living happily in the USA.
Hosseini is simply some guy who feels guilty about having escaped what so many of his fellow countrymen couldn't, and he makes up for it in fantasy in a million ways: accepting his fallen father, marrying an "unsuitable" woman, listening to a voice from the past, saving the son of his friend he watched being raped decades before (when he was too selfish to intervene), stomaching the live stoning of a burka-clad woman and her adulterous lover, taking a beating from an old enemy/Taliban child molestor, giving $2000 to a poor smuggler who tries to feed his kids on $3 a week, and saving a 12 year-old from suicide. If Hosseini REALLY did all this, what a hero he would be. Instead, he just makes it up and calles it a novel ... and people devour this shit with tears, labeling it as "inspirational" and "moving."
What really bothers me? Besides all of the contrived and predictable plot twists?? What really disturbs me is that people not only eat this shit up, but they also call it "literature," award it, and give this guy money and license to write another book.
For lack of better words ... WTF?!!!??! Has everyone just gone STUPID?!!?!?
I could go on about how the writing sucks, especially when the author admits to using cliches (elephant in the room, dark as night, thin as a rake, et fucking c) but I won't.
Why? A couple of reasons:
1) If you liked this book, a part of you is sick, and a larger part of you is an idiot
2) I could write a 100-page thesis about how much this book blew monkey chunks, but it's not worth my time
3) This shit sells, and Hosseini, between his stupid book and movie deals, is an even richer man than he was before ... which in the end, makes him smarter than you, me, and everyone else .... He understands the market and fed it back to us. We probably deserve it.
First, let's deal with the writer himself. Hosseini's father worked for Western companies while in Afghasnistan. While daddy (who I am guessing, from Hosseini's tragic account of the "fictional" father, never accepts his son) worked and got wealthy, normal Afghans lived their lives. When war broke out, Hosseini's father was offered a safe position in Iran. Just before the revolution in Iran, his father was offered another job in Paris, before finally taking the family to the USA.
That's fine ... some of us are lucky in life. Others are not. What bothers me, though, is that The Kite Runner is so obviously what Hosseini WISHES had happened.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Hassan character really did exist in some form or another. Surely Hosseini had a friend/sometimes playmate/servant who was left behind while Hosseini's powerful family escaped. Surely, Hosseini feels guilty for leaving his homeland by simple privilege while the less fortunate were left behind to fight the Soviets, the Mujahideen, and then the Taliban. And surely, Hosseini wishes he were some flawed hero that didn't simply get lucky. He wishes he'd majored in English, as the protagonist does, and published fiction books instead of becoming a run-of-the-mill doctor; he wishes his father had depended upon him in the USA as happens in the book, instead of getting by just fine as a rich exile with a daddy-doesn't-love-me complex; he wishes he could go back to Afghanistan, risking his life to make ammends for his shitty and cowardly past, instead of remaining a wealthy outsider living happily in the USA.
Hosseini is simply some guy who feels guilty about having escaped what so many of his fellow countrymen couldn't, and he makes up for it in fantasy in a million ways: accepting his fallen father, marrying an "unsuitable" woman, listening to a voice from the past, saving the son of his friend he watched being raped decades before (when he was too selfish to intervene), stomaching the live stoning of a burka-clad woman and her adulterous lover, taking a beating from an old enemy/Taliban child molestor, giving $2000 to a poor smuggler who tries to feed his kids on $3 a week, and saving a 12 year-old from suicide. If Hosseini REALLY did all this, what a hero he would be. Instead, he just makes it up and calles it a novel ... and people devour this shit with tears, labeling it as "inspirational" and "moving."
What really bothers me? Besides all of the contrived and predictable plot twists?? What really disturbs me is that people not only eat this shit up, but they also call it "literature," award it, and give this guy money and license to write another book.
For lack of better words ... WTF?!!!??! Has everyone just gone STUPID?!!?!?
I could go on about how the writing sucks, especially when the author admits to using cliches (elephant in the room, dark as night, thin as a rake, et fucking c) but I won't.
Why? A couple of reasons:
1) If you liked this book, a part of you is sick, and a larger part of you is an idiot
2) I could write a 100-page thesis about how much this book blew monkey chunks, but it's not worth my time
3) This shit sells, and Hosseini, between his stupid book and movie deals, is an even richer man than he was before ... which in the end, makes him smarter than you, me, and everyone else .... He understands the market and fed it back to us. We probably deserve it.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
The Kite Runner.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Started Reading
May 11, 2008
– Shelved as:
sucked
May 11, 2008
– Shelved
May 11, 2008
–
Finished Reading
July 7, 2008
– Shelved as:
middle_east
May 12, 2010
– Shelved as:
worst-garbage-i-ve-ever-read
March 21, 2012
– Shelved as:
rants
Comments Showing 151-200 of 265 (265 new)
![Will](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1582779720p1/23393215.jpg)
![Cheshire Cat [Heidi]~ We're All Mad Here ~](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1454696753p1/40221410.jpg)
![Will](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1582779720p1/23393215.jpg)
That's a little arrogant don't you think?
![Cheshire Cat [Heidi]~ We're All Mad Here ~](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1454696753p1/40221410.jpg)
That's a little arrogant don't you think?"
Will, that's kind of the point. This is all a game. People like you are the ones that make it funny and enjoyable.
![Will](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1582779720p1/23393215.jpg)
That's a little arrogant don't you think?"
Will, that's kind of the point. This..."
So this is all just trolling? Why?
![Laurie](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1353418024p1/10327250.jpg)
![Spider the Doof Warrior](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1378350294p1/2348494.jpg)
![Laurie](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1353418024p1/10327250.jpg)
*and a list of any books you've written.....
There, does that make it better?
![Laurie](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1353418024p1/10327250.jpg)
― Bill Bullard
P.S. You're opinion means nothing to me as I couldn't care less what you or the other one think. Hope you have a nice life.
![Booky](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
I'm sure you're fine.
Anyway, don't get a 26 year-old me drunk and talking about this book...then reviews like this one happen.
![Booky](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
Just don't write a self-serving book about what a hero you are. :)
![Saoirse Flaherty](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
Since I have read both, loved both , wonder why these books should only appeal to morons. They have a good plot and the history is sccurate btw.( I too have two Graduate degrees and working on third)
![Saoirse Flaherty](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
![Jessie](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
It appears you just joined godreads to comment on my review. A quick refresher for newbies such as yourself: this site is where I get to post my own opinions about books. If you want to critique my reviews, go ahead. Yes, teach the world, one internet review at a time, why said review is wrong. That's not the point of the site at all, but do what works for you. It makes you look like an idiot, but by all means, carry on.
Just don't get too excited about it -- people care about my ideas about books -- not about your opinions about my reviews. If you want attention, make a name for yourself on here by writing some opinions that dont suck -- and write them about books, not about reviews.
My reviews are my soap box to say what I think. They're not here to entertain you. Don't like it, go away. Pretty simple solution.
![Booky](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
LOL...you are quite something.
![Booky](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
ROFL...Rock on, girl...you have every right to voice your opinions. These people should ignore your review and post their own glowing review if your review offends them. Why attack your review?
![Booky](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
ROFL...housewife book-buying drones! I still love this book but idk why you crack me up but in a good way. I enjoyed your perspective on this book, your psychoanalysis of the author seems spot-on. Both the book and your review encouraged me to face up to my inner hypocrite and to be a better person. We see so much injustice around us. But we don't speak up till it affects us. Sometimes we make up stories with happy endings to cope with it. But the reality is far more bitter.
Fiction (unfortunately) often brings some kind of resolution to the story. This resolution is often what we wish for, not always the reality. We might be doing a disservice to the truth by buying/reading/writing such a book. But it's fiction, it doesn't claim to be anything else. And that's why I like this book. But I also like and respect your take on this.
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
ROFL...housewife b..."
I'm glad you liked my review, even though we disagree on the book.
It's been like 8 years since I wrote the review, but I stand by what I said. I can't see the point in reading fiction about a country/political situation when there's so much enthralling nonfiction about the same topic: I Am Malala, The Favored Daughter, and From My Memories to name a few.
All The Kite Runner offers is some random Afghan dude's poorly-written melodramatic fantasy story. If people like it because they like it, fine. I just wasn't into it. :)
![Jessie](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
Why should I save insults for Facebook? And when did you become the one to decide the purpose of this site? I wrote a review of a crappy book a long time ago, said it was the author's lame little fantasy and a stupid story. You can't handle it? Cool. Move on.
![( ͡❛ _⦣ ͡❛)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1580921691p1/7249955.jpg)
![Wajihah Ullah](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
LPA, writing just a few comments back on this very page: "I can't see the point in reading fiction about a count..."
;)
![Edyta](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1439340875p1/16133675.jpg)
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
Oh, to be 25 again...and drunk book reviewing again. Good times. :)
![Tara](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
You may want to read a few of the comments above for context.
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
Well, don't attack people over reviews--ever, but especially when you're only 30 pages into a book and then refuse context. Makes you look even more pedestrian/juvenile than you already are.
JESUS. What a mind fuck.