THIS REVIEW OF THE KITE RUNNER IS BY VICTORIA CALDY, A KNOWING NANTES READING GROUP MEMBER.

The Kite Runner is about Amir, a twelve-year old Afghan, who is desperate to gain the approval of his father. He resolves to win the local kite-fighting tournament and it is his loyal friend and servant Hassan who will help him.

We follow Amir growing up through a period of political upheaval, a move overseas to start a new life in America and several bereavements. Throughout all Amir is constantly seeking approval in order to find redemption for his past crime against Hassan.

Sadly, his story gives us only bare glimpses into the Afghan culture and way of life; the main descriptors being the odd Afghan word thrown in, as if that would satisfy ones appetite to understand more about this country. The one exception being the Taliban occupation, which seemed so extreme that it would easily find its place well in a Hollywood movie perhaps thats why?

The style of the book left little to the imagination as it diligently followed a good versus evil, positive then negative storyline. Basically it felt as though the writer had recently been on a creative writing course and was possibly writing is autobiography at least in parts.

Assef, the main evil character, was rather ridiculous befitting a childrens cartoon, moreover the reader doesnt get any insight as to how or why Assef had become quite so wicked. If indeed it was solely down to his German Ayrian mother then the term cliché comes to mind - perhaps hed had a sadistic upbringing but there was no mention of that whatsoever. Whilst our positive, goody-too shoes character, Hassan, was seemingly un-human, with no real clear motivation for his undying love nor sacrifices he made for his friend and master.

Despite this, the story still retained an element of surprise and tried to evoke emotions in the reader. On the whole, its an easy read and quite entertaining, even though the author doesnt appear to know much about modern day Afghanistan. Perhaps with his second novel he might redeem himself.

THIS REVIEW FROM AMAZON, I THINK SUMS UP OUR VIEWS GENERALLY OF 60 MILLION FRENCHMEN CAN'T BE WRONG.

Reviewer:Abby Leigh "lyttleradish" (New York, New York United States)

"Sixty Million Frenchman..."., like its title, is a bit off. The authors present themselves as cultural anthropologists .Their method is to interview their randomly-acquired French friends. The technique works well for the first section, "Spirit", since it is mostly opinion-based, as another reviewer noted. However, when the authors apply it to the the structure of the government , it is less sucessful. "Julie" and "Jean-Benoit" have an irritating habit of giving "Gustave's" and "Daniel's" views on government as gospel. They plug the foundation that funded their three years in France repeatedly, they discuss the social events around this foundation's 75th birthday, and even the trip that the foundation head makes to visit them, presumably all on the foundation's money.

A REVIEW OF SATURDAY BY IAN McEWAN BY SIMON KENNEDY A KNOWING NANTES READING GROUP MEMBER.

Saturday follows a day in the life of a well-off doctor in London. He is not a very interesting guy, has nothing new to say about the world and the events of the book change him not at all. As well as owning a posh Merc - of which he is very proud - he has an impossibly successful family and a big house.

The Saturday concerned sees the biggest protest in British history, but, aside from sparking a few lightweight set-piece political exchanges, the doctor is little affected. He tuts and sighs about how the protesters are too happy, muttering hostile vagueries, but there is no serious engagement with the issues. Instead we are led through detailed descriptions of neurosurgical procedures and a shot-for-shot account of a squash game with a secondary character (I'm not making that bit up).

Although the tone throughout is deadpan realism, the climax and resolution hinges on a weird novelist's fantasy that is uninvolving and unbelievable.

This book is clunky and wearisome - particularly its construction. The all in one day form could give pace and relevance to all the threads. It should do. But in these hands, handled in this way, the narrative becomes a tedious sequence of long expositions and character sketches.

Some people are introduced only to make an easy political point, and then never heard of again. None of them is developed. 'And then there was that summer years ago where Daisy and her grandfather argued at the dinner table about her latest book of poems...' You just know that a line for line account is on its way. As new people turn up, I groaned in dismay: more long backfilling set in the distant and irrelevant past. All show and little tell.

The political pivot of the book is hardly a path-breaker - better to be decent in your personal dealings, enjoy the small beauties of art and your domestic immediates, rather than get involved in well-meaning utopian schemes of social change which can only lead to totalitarian horror. It's the classic conservative trope, written a thousand times, and much better than this.

The popularity among critics is easy to understand though. There is a small layer of upper middle class former leftwingers who have recently been shocked into admitting just how much they really like the current social set up, and how much they stand to lose by a challenge like the mass action of that Saturday. It's a novel for them. So if you happen to earn eighty grand plus working in the London media, I would highly recommend this book. It's for you. You're welcome to it.