was the Kite Runner good, or was the Kite Runner good

[BritTex]

I am sure that this book has been discussed here many times but I have just finished reading it and had to post something.

What a book

I would not only recommend this book to anyone but insist that everyone read it. It was fabulous, so moving, so real, such a gifted storyteller, he made me laugh and cry (a lot). I could not put it down and read it in 2 days. I cannot wait to get my hands on his next book - A thousand splendid suns.

MrsSpoon - I've seen the film and I'm not sure I'd take a 9 year old tbh. Some very shocking scenes.

Loved the book. Made me weep. Film made me weep. Would take DS1 (15) but not a child younger than 12 I think.

I don't think the film portrayed the final third of the book as well... but a good film.

A FAB book!

I loved the book.

Am waiting for dd to finish it before we see the film.

Have also just finished The Bookseller of Kabul.Quite disturbing how woman live in this day and age.

Loved this book, and have just been brave enough to watch the film. Amazing, obvioulsy not as good as the book, but def one of my top 5 films ever!

I thought I was the only person in the world who didn't love it. So glad to find other people agree with me! Some lovely writing in parts, but the second half was ghastly.

Oh hester, I just loved it!! I read about 20 books a month, admitatly moslty crap, but this blew me away.

Whoops posted too soon, what I was also going to say was I've just finished Hangover Square and I feel I'm the only one who does not like it.

It is one of my favourite books. My DH thought it was contrived but I loved the relationship between the boys.

I'm just a natural party pooper, RedtartanLass . I also dislike Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong and that awful one he wrote about WW2...

It's sentimental schmaltz about other people's very real tragedies that turns my stomach. That and plotting that relies on unbelievable coincidence...

Mind, a friend of mine wrote a novel that embodies both, and I tried to be kind and tactful to her about it while thinking, "She will never get this published in a zillion years". It is currently riding high in the NY Times Bestseller lists and is being made into a movie. So what do I know.

no, it wasn't that good, imo.

oh, have just noticed this thread is a year old and I'd commented on it then, was a little kinder about the book then too

Hester with you that, on I also disliked Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong. Even though I depseprately wanted to like Birdsong. However just loved Kite Runner, spent a weekend last year not moving my fat ass off the chair. I could not put it down.The book not my ass!

lol, I just searched on the Kite Runner, didn't bother checking the dates

Birdsong is my absolute favourite book!

I wasn't so keen on Birdsong either

OMG - I loved this book. I could not stop thinking about it for days after. I recommend it to everyone.

I found the film bland in comparisson.

sorry quick hijack - Hester how's your dd? She was born the day before my dd, if I remember rightly! Seems such a long time ago

Wow, good memory RtL! dd is doing great: funny, clever, eccentric, probably horribly spoilt (much like every other firstborn 3-year-old, then). Obsessed with volcanoes and pirates at the moment (runs down the high street shrieking, "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" or "Walk the walk, scurvy dog!"). How about yours? Is she completely gorgeous? (Can you tell I just love them at this age?).

lol walk the walk you scurvy dog. My dd1 is obsessed with pink and will not wear trousers, it must be a "pretty" dress. Where the hell did she get that from, certailnly not me?

glad in am not the only one who didn't like it. actually, i HATED it with a passion, i thought it was heavy handed in the extreme, the plot risible, formulaic, predictable and exploitative. the author treats the reader like a moron, needs to spell out every single implied emotion. in a word- shallow. there was simply no depth to either the story or the prose.

it could have been a wonderful short story, or even a novella. but the novel simply didn't work.

sorry.

Well- I loved it. And I cried.
Thousand Splendid Suns didn't grab me as much, but still thought it was good.

I read Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie, afterwards, because someone on mn recommended it as miles better than Thousand Splendid. And I do recommend it

hester, please tell me some other books you don't like since it sounds like we have similar taste.... I loathed Birdsong and Charlotte Gray. I didn't absolutely hate The Kite Runner, but I would have been disappointed by it if I hadn't already been expecting to be, IYSWIM. I thought it was clunky and overwritten. (And now I feel guilty for thinking so thanks to that snippet about him getting up at 5am to write it).

Charlotte Gray! That's the one - thanks, Flossie. I thought the way he used the plot device of children being gassed as a foil for the central romance was exploitative schmaltz and absolutely stomach-turning.

You are clearly a woman of erudition and taste, so I'm going to rush off in search of The Wasted Vigil tomorrow.