THE KITE RUNNER (Khaled Hosseini) - May 9/11

I certainly enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, though the movie is much better. The problem is that Hosseini spends too much time on things that aren't terribly interesting; like the movie, the book features an overlong opening 100 pages devoted to the childhood exploits of Amir and Hassan. Unlike the movie (I think), the book also suffers from a fairly needless final 70 pages revolving around Amir's efforts at getting Hassan's son into America (with the kid's suicide attempt especially pointless). But the book's middle is incredibly engrossing and entertaining, with the confrontation with Sohrab's kidnapper especially suspenseful. And yeah, I choked up a few times. But still, the book is just much longer than it needs to be, which diminishes its overall impact. *** out of ****