I gave this book one star. Yes it is about Afghanistan, yes it contains some interesting and even well-written scenes, but all-in-all this book is maudlin and over the top and seems to refuse to end until every imaginable soap-opera-esque turn of plot has been explored and milked of every melodramatic possibility. Hosseini also has a penchant for the artlessly grotesque, and his scenes of child rape are jarring--made even more so by his seeming inability to integrate them meaningfully into the story.

Here I would like to differentiate between the emotionally powerful and the melodramatic. I started this book with high hopes, as it had come to me well recommended and I like kites. The beginning half shows much potential. Hosseini's descriptions of life in 1970's Kabul are often beautiful, as are his descriptions of the two boys playing with kites and reading the Shah-Nameh.

Midway, the book falls apart, and hard. Modern Afghanistan is a large canvas, and Hosseini tries to use as much of it as possible. In the broad sweep he fails. Yet the biggest disappointment for me was his completely predictible characterization. As the novel progresses, the characters become more and more like cartoons. The Kite Runner lacks any subtlety. Take, for instance, the character of boyhood bully who becomes a Taliban goon. Half-German? Nazi. Sodomite? Of course. Homosexual pediphile? We get it! He's the bad guy. Now shoot him in the face with a slingshot!!!

All in all, this book seems like a first attempt of someone who has a lot to say, but doesn't have the maturity or self-editing to say it well. For all of its bad parts, which unfortunately outweigh the good, I can see he has talent, and quite possibly potential. I'll read his next book.