La Petite Américaine's Reviews > The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner
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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.
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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 251-265 of 265 (265 new)
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![Kristina Coop-a-Loop](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1690733841p1/4272284.jpg)
No problem. I've blocked a few persistent loonies over my years on GR.
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
Yeah, you’re right to do it, too. You can’t win with crazy.
It can be funny to watch people chase their tails in rage over just why someone else’s opinion is wrong 😂, but the super crazies get old fast. I’m not going fulfill some loser’s need for ongoing drama — I’m not here for your entertainment, take your psychosis elsewhere. Try Reddit or something.
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
Yep. I have advanced degrees in it.
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
You sound a little unstable. It might be better if you just navigate away.
![Kristina Coop-a-Loop](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1690733841p1/4272284.jpg)
And right on cue, another crazy walks on stage.
![La Petite Américaine](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1218985191p1/59329.jpg)
Not fantabulous, that’s for sure.
![Adelka](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1647888068p1/128466982.jpg)
![dreamer S](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1603032398p1/23949154.jpg)
![Kristina Coop-a-Loop](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1690733841p1/4272284.jpg)
People who judge are usually insecure and projecting themselves.
Um, exactly. It's so amusing you wrote this. If you had any sort of self-awareness, you'd realize the irony of this statement.
Why not write a review about how awesome this book is and how much you loved it instead of pissing all over a well-written and analytical review? La Petite doesn't care about your opinion and (if she reads it), will probably have a good laugh.
![Catherine the Great](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1651107174p1/126935504.jpg)
![Karyssa](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1503961520p1/48639464.jpg)
I learnt some new terms, got to enjoy your response to every sanctimonious emotionally pressed person on here and seeing someone stand up for themselves against entitled demands was also wonderful.
How strange to think that since posting this review you must have experienced so much life as a person - does it feel nostalgic every time a moron comes along and comments on this thread?
Anyways sending good vibes your way as a thanks for making me laugh when I needed it.
Thanks for the reminder. :)