Khaled Hosseini...that would be the author of Kite Runner,right?I've heard of this book and remembered the name of the author,but don't really know about it.It's a popular one,though,as far as I know.
And I agree with you Antiquarian,it all comes down to marketing these days.Dan Brown is successful because he found the right measure for controversy - he is by no means a good writer,but religion sells,the same way sex does.
Noću, u intimnom, poluglasnom razgovoru sa samim sobom, nikako ne mogu zapravo logički opravdati zašto se u posljednje vrijeme toliko uzrujavam zbog ljudske gluposti.
Miroslav Krleža
You're welcome!!Originally Posted by Antiquarian
Thank you, Amalia. I won't rush to read it. Thank you very much for giving me your impression of the book. I have so much I need and want to read, I can't waste time on something that is "iffy."
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free.
-Goethe
I have read most of Coelho's books: the fifth mountain, eleven minutes, by the Piedra river I sit and cry, The Zahir, the Witch of Portobello, Veronika decides to die, The demon and Miss Prym.
I liked Veronika decides to die. I liked the philosophy of life conveyed in it, and I have learned some interesting things from it, the Zahir and The Fifth Mountain were good too.
I hated The Witch of Portobello because, the ideas were more about mysticism and the female face/side of God stuff like that, I mean it was incomprehensible, at least to me and of no importance.
When it comes to judge whether his writing is literary or not. I may say, it's average, it's not that great.
"La dignité n'est qu'un paravent placé par l'orgueil et derrière lequel nous enrageons à notre aise." Honoré de balzac.
"La réalité implacable me conduirait au suicide si le rêve ne me permettait d'attendre". Guy de Maupassant.
He is overrated,after all.I liked "The Alchemist",it was not so bad but I was a kid when I read it so while my mind evolved,my point of view made progress to and I find that book rather childish now.I also read "The Zahir" which was a total farce and my opinion on Coelho changed,I can't say for good but however...Not advisable as an author.There are many better writers these days,even geniuses.The epoch of literature is not over yet(oh,I regretfully say that "yet",I hope it will become "never" one day)...
You forget that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence: and the kingdom of heaven is like a woman.
James Joyce
It is a fatal miscarriage, so ill to order affairs, as to pass for a fool in one company, when in another you might be treated as a philosopher. Jonathan Swift
Oh dear, my sister-in-law who visited recently left me A Thousand Splendid Suns to read - I shall have to make at least a nominal gesture towards reading it, she will Ask Questions. She did the same with Girl with a Pearl Ear-ring and gave me the DVD for a birthday present and I hated both of them (Creative Writing class exercise, I thought) and she keeps referring to it and is quite offended that I didn't like it. What do you do with people who can't accept that people are entitled to their own opinions?
Agree with you about Brown - couldn't stop myself thinking 'Tosh!' as I read it - page-turning tosh, but nevertheless badly written, dishonest tosh. But people take it seriously! What have we done to the next generation of readers? Failed to give them any critical faculties, that's for sure. Can't bring myself to watch the film.
Was also loaned The Alchemist some time ago, but was not in a reading mode, too much else going on my life at the time, so quietly returned it without comment.
I think Dan Brown sold a large number of his books because of the "controversial" topic. And about the next generation of readers? With all reality shows, lame teen-tv with only one message: be rich, skinny and beautiful and society which still measures one's life and achivements through money earned during lifetime I wonder if there WOULD be a next generation of readers at all.Agree with you about Brown - couldn't stop myself thinking 'Tosh!' as I read it - page-turning tosh, but nevertheless badly written, dishonest tosh. But people take it seriously! What have we done to the next generation of readers? Failed to give them any critical faculties, that's for sure. Can't bring myself to watch the film.
As for Hosseini, I read The Kite Runner. In terms of style maybe it wasn't so special, new or revolutionary. But I still found it better than any average crime novel and the main reason I was attracted to this book was because it's about Afghanistan. And I'll give him credit for describing class differences in a society.
There is no difference about COelho and Dan Brown, both a formula writer, both limited. For Dan Brown audience (Thrillers) he is able to keep the attention ,for the mystic kind of attention needing confort Coelho will be able to keep the attention.
I must say however that the ability of writer to keep his reader reading page after page is the most basic and limited trait ever. A great writer provokes the imagination beyond the page, confuse, give us an internal turmoil about everything writen there. Coelho and Brown equally fail there.
Antiquarian:
I didn't mean Coelho used other texts to re-create temes and plots. He just borrowed them. The only reason why he is not drowned by authoral rights process is because most of the writers he copies are dead century ago.
I've read Coelho's The Devil and Miss Prym. It did nothing for me. I'm not a big fan of magical realism, and the book seemed nothing more than heavy-handed allegory. I didn't loathe it, but I found it distinctly forgettable... fluff. Coelho, for all his "bestselling author" status, seems decidedly lightweight.
As for Dan Brown' Da Vinci Code, the plot and setting seemed a direct rip-off of Umberto Eco's complex, delightful Foucault's Pendulum.
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