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Stewart
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The Kite Runner
About 240 pages in now and I see what you mean. What could have been an interesting story about coping with the early days has simply become a catalogue of Taliban atrocities visited one after another. The seventy pages of life in America, as far as I can tell thus far, seem like padding added after the book was written in order to stretch it over the 300 page mark.
Take this quote from page 163.
Come on, Hosseini...who really speaks like that? I think he has spent too many years in America watching television.
jay said:
About 240 pages in now and I see what you mean. What could have been an interesting story about coping with the early days has simply become a catalogue of Taliban atrocities visited one after another. The seventy pages of life in America, as far as I can tell thus far, seem like padding added after the book was written in order to stretch it over the 300 page mark.
Take this quote from page 163.
Come on, Hosseini...who really speaks like that? I think he has spent too many years in America watching television.
JonV said:
Well, I honestly don’t find most books _that_ challenging that I need a holiday from quality.
But some of the writers I enjoy that are, I guess, easier on the mental digestive system:
Elmore Leonard
Ben Elton
Donald E. Westlake (older stuff – e.g. _Humans_)
Sometimes I take the time where I don’t want to delve further into a writer(s) I’m already familiar with to look at anthologies of various stories. I’ll sift about and maybe find a writer I find interesting and then I have a whole new selection of books to look into.
That quest is sometimes quite fruitful, and it never ends.
I _don’t_ look at what’s Best Selling and decide, “hm, everyone’s doing it…”
I find Paul Auster more engaging than anything Brown could ever come up with, and it’s solidly written.
(It’s not a crime to keep a Post-It note on the inside cover and jot down notes on a book…)
The old stuff can be fun, if not sometimes dated: Raymond Chandler, D. Hammett; horror freaks could look back to Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison…
Bookstores can be a *wonderful* place, people. No need to put on blinders and just look at the top-ten and/or your favourite section…
Absurdly, some of what I list above is out of print.
Why?
Because people tend to prefer the blinder method of shopping.
j
Stewart said:
Hollywood talk.
I dunno. I’m to understand that Hosseini was never really interested in writing 8I think he has a medical background?) and just shat this thing out, and I’d have to say with some molding by some editors. Maybe in the time before the book deal he had a half-decent story, maybe not. But undoubtedly it was structured on every cliché that could happen.
And it’s no surprise that it’s being widely promoted and, of course, widely bought and therefore widely “loved”.
Shite breeds shite.
Stewart said:
This is this.
People love it, what can I say.
I always get a kick out of the crowd that can’t be arsed to read a little history on their own, especially on places in the news *every day*, especially places they’ve bombed the shit out of, and then feel enlightened after getting a little tidbit of “fact” from modern novels.
Needless to say, this is why publishers pimp the hell out of book bound to be best sellers…
j
novella
Active Member
jay said:
I heard him interviewed on Fresh Air (a public radio show) the other day and all they talked about was how much of The Kite Runner is autobiographical and what his political views are now. BTW, he is a practicing medical doctor.
I think the success of this book is in part coming out of many Americans' need to feel 'comfortable' and righteous about a foreign culture that now seems alien and hostile.
Jemima Aslana
New Member
Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto
That book is hilarious. SO funny.
That book is hilarious. SO funny.
Rigana
New Member
Choderlos de Laclos - Les Liaisons Dangereuses
I wasn't sure whether I would like it because its written in form of letters and thus a bit unusual for me. I couldn't quite imagine how this would work out, but it is great. I'm only a few pages in but I already have a good impression of the main characters through their letters.
I wasn't sure whether I would like it because its written in form of letters and thus a bit unusual for me. I couldn't quite imagine how this would work out, but it is great. I'm only a few pages in but I already have a good impression of the main characters through their letters.
raffaellabella
New Member
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.
ions
New Member
Wabbit said:
I am enjoying the book a lot so far. It's very easy to read and quite amusing. A retelling of the past, still our future, by a character called 'Snowman'. I like the style of it and the way she's building the world and my knowledge of the character.
I have read a few of her short stories and many of her interviews. This is the first novel of her's I'm trying. There's a voice in my head telling me I read The Handmaid's Tale but I don't actually recall doing so. I am adding both The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin to my TBR list assuming Oryx and Crake maintains the quality it has shown so far.
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