I read The Kite Runner in one sitting, really, as I waited for a delayed flight, took the flight, and rode the train up from NYC. After the first 100 pages, I spoke to someone on the phone and said, "You should read this; it's good." At the end, I wanted to find a rewind button on my own life to retract that statement.
It's not good. The attention it has received is staggering, and especially the approval it received from several sources I would have expected better from (I'm looking at you, New York Times).
Its depiction of life in modern day Afghanistan is striking and well drawn. That is a strength of the novel. That said, much of the rest of it is mired in cliche and predictability. The second two thirds of the novel read not unlike The Da Vinci Code, which, yes, I've read, with lots of "twists" and melodramatic descriptions and moral platitudes meant to amaze. Gack.
I wanted to like it, I did, but as I read it, all I could think of was the fact that this book is already being taught at high schools and colleges, and that student readers of this book would think that the sort of purple prose and "powerful" language is literary and acceptable. I wish I had the book next to me to give you some examples, but I don't. Perhaps I'll save that for another post.
King Leopold's Ghost was first read by my father, who gave it to my mother, who then insisted that I read it. It is an incredibly gripping nonfiction account of the colonization of the Western Africa region known now as the Congo.
The book is many things at once: the indictment of a genocide, a profile of a megalomaniac, a short history of life at the turn of the 20th century on several continents, as well as a cautionary tale about greed and manifest destiny. It's a truly excellent book, with twists and turns, and characters that couldn't have been made up. I know I read a lot of nonfiction, but this is a work of nonfiction that even someone who scorns the genre will enjoy.
After Christmas, I read Truth and Beauty, a memoir by Ann Patchett. I finally got around to reading her most acclaimed novel, Bel Canto. I don't frequently choose books because of authors, and I think I would have been unlikely to have chosen this one otherwise. I think I would describe it as more romantic and ambient than things I usually read. It took me a while to really be drawn in, but once I was, the last 100 pages or so blew by. I have a couple qualms with the ending, but other than that, a quality read. Patchett's style is appealing: somewhat sparse, with few overdrawn missteps.
I have not done a good job as of late keeping up on my book postings. Now that I'm finally on vacation, I'm going to try to post about my little backlog of things I've read.
Life on the Outside is the story of Elaine Bartlett, a woman who served sixteen years in prison under New York's Rockefeller drug laws. Bartlett acted as a courier of cocaine one time, had no previous offenses, and received a 15 to life sentence. She was the matriarch of a difficult brood back in Manhattan, who she continued to try and lead from the walls of state prisons. The book itself is a very convincing indictment of the Rockefeller drug laws, and also a well-done portrait of a dynamic, and occasionally tragic, figure. Gonnerman, the author and Village Voice reporter, has a matter-of-fact tone that doesn't necessarily wow, but keeps an appropriate distance. It's not as good as Random Family, but it's a welcome addition to the genre.