Also, why do people who read bad reviews of a book they like have to be so nasty towards the reviewer?

I could add a lot to this review, but will focus on my main additional problem: if boys are sexually abused in any deeply patriarchal, honour-bound culture, do they *really* feel free to tell any number of people about their experience? How would a father react to the news? If a girl is raped in such a culture, her male relatives feel “dis-honoured” and often-times she takes the blame. I think the reactions of the boy actor and his father to the film show that this can be similar for boys. Here’s a quote from the BBC article on the topic (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6992751.stm ), with quotes from the father of the boy who plays Hassan: “‘Of course I’m worried about it,’ he says. ‘My own people from my own tribe will turn against me because of the story. I am so worried they may cut my throat, they may kill me, torture me.’ His son has been quoted as saying he fears his friends will shun him because they think he really was raped.”

To me this book exploits a currently sensational subject (i.e. sexual abuse of boys, e.g. the film Mystic River) from a very Western point of view: none of it read true to me regarding how such a situation would play out in Afghanistan. And he also avoids dealing with the brutal misogyny in such a culture in a very weaselly way (e.g., maybe it’s because the narrator wasn’t brought up around women- like that’s ever prevented a man in an honour-bond patriarchy from taking on those values). The author fails here most miserably when the narrator’s future wife is found to be living as a teenager out-of-wedlock with a boyfriend for a month: the father (an ex-Army General with a strong sense of “honour”) takes a gun but only uses it to threaten the boyfriend, then threaten to kill himself. The girl doesn’t suffer much except for a future lack of suitors.

The “bad guy” who joins the Taliban being a half-German boy who worships Hitler: wha’??

These things made me very suspicious of the book containing anything anyone could learn about Afghanistan: I’m not usually a conspiracy theorist but it almost stinks of propaganda aimed at the masses. And it’s the kind of thing that makes white westerners feel a great emotional catharsis without being challenged on any level, or learning anything- indeed their most deeply held prejudices are confirmed but they get to feel good about themselves.

@Melanie: I enjoyed your post and realise you were probably just having a pleasurable rant, but “It reads like a children’s or young adult novel” – does a huge disservice to many wonderful children’s and young adult novels! :-)

I personally loved The Kite Runner. It is intriguing and grabs your heart in a way that I have never had a book do before. I agree with Michelle in that who cares if the CIA have more info on Afghanistan! like she said, this is a fictional piece of literature, it is not meant to be an encyclopedia.
Beth’s review is a load of crap, not the book.

And yeah some people are getting defensive because it is a GOOD book. your getting just as defensive when you say that this book is bad. So why dont you all just find something useful to do with your time instead of criticizing someone who is more talented than YOU!!!!!!!!!