What are you reading at the moment?

[basil]

Good book. There were times that I laughed, cried, and threw the book across the room, swearing off reading and humans altogether. I went so far as to buy Thousand Splendid Suns, but never got around to reading it. I'd be interested to hear what you think of that one, and more in particular, what you think of him as a writer.

Ok, I'm gonna go out on a limb here. IMO, this was just another feel-good, Oprah's pick type book. I didn't like the overall feel of the story. For one thing, the author seems way to preoccupied with what he believes the reader wants, instead of just letting the story be told;many parts of the story seemed contrived, and the author's writing was dishonest. You might could just chalk that up to the fact that he's not writing in his first language, but I doubt it.

Also, the whole damn thing is a sham because the protagonist never learns his lesson - he was always and remained guilt-driven and never realized altruism - and the author tries to pass this off as self-reconciliation. I call BS.

Cultural differences? Nah - Writers from Rumi to Gibran to Rushdie all understood self-actualization. It is something that cuts across all cultures. This writer failed to capture it, probably because for whatever reason he doesn't understand it. And, I think he's a hack to boot.

I know it's a best seller and a lot of people liked it, but a lot of people like TV too.