I finally finished The Kite Runner
I hate it when I don't finish the book in time for book group. This time, there was really no good excuse -- The Kite Runner (by Khaled Hosseini), while 400 pages, was an incredibly fast read. Ann objected to his telegraphing his intention to use hackneyed literary conventions. There were a lot of coincidences in the second half that strained credibility.
I was surprised this paragraph, and several like it that followed, survived the editor's pen:
"A creative writing teacher at San Jose State used to say about cliches: 'Avoid them like the plague.' Then he'd laugh at his own joke. The class laughed along with him, but I always thought cliches got a bum rap. Because, often, they're dead on. But the aptness of the cliched saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliche. For example, 'the elephant in the room' saying. Nothing could more correctly describe the intial moments of my reunion with Rahim Khan."
I was surprised this paragraph, and several like it that followed, survived the editor's pen:
"A creative writing teacher at San Jose State used to say about cliches: 'Avoid them like the plague.' Then he'd laugh at his own joke. The class laughed along with him, but I always thought cliches got a bum rap. Because, often, they're dead on. But the aptness of the cliched saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliche. For example, 'the elephant in the room' saying. Nothing could more correctly describe the intial moments of my reunion with Rahim Khan."
posted by Excellent Walker at 5:54 PM
5 comments
