mariambeldiii's reviews
50 reviews

A goddamn ridiculous book - In a good way!

I loved the style of writing, I love the way everything was said, I liked the super American way it was written - I really did enjoy the structure and language of it.

The actual plot? It was fun to read, dont get me wrong, but what was the book actually about? When i read around it was supposed to be about protecting the innocent and whatnot - And I may have missed the mark because i’m not attentive or insightful enough, but I really don’t get that?

I understand Houldens thing with Allie, and how sweet he is with Phoebe, and I can sort of get it from there, as well as him himself being very weak, but I seriously didn’t get the “message” behind the book. Though its still a good book regardless! I suppose not every book has to have a message behind it, though i thought a book as popular as this one would have one.

Anyway, I really liked the whole thing with Houlden and his “phony” obsession. It really shows how alienated he was from society and all his peers around him, and it was very teenage angsty, as it should be considering his age and background.

Anyway, a really fun and nice read, I just don’t get the whole innocence part of it. Nothing groundbreaking either, just really fun and simply good!

Really nice book about the history of russia - nothing more, nothing less! I liked the whole theme of the “Russia vs the West” thing it had going on throughout the entire thing, as well as the thing about the Ryurikid dynaaty and the Romanovs!! Liked the whole analysis about Putin in the end as well and how it ties back to the beginning of Russia.

What I enjoyed MOST and what this book definitely wasn’t about was the fun linguistic connections!!! Its so fun seeing how language connects across borders!! There were only about two examples in the whole 200 pages and yet they stood out to me the most!! (linguistics nerd)

Nothing I can say about this book will give it justice

The social intricacies that I notice here and there remind me alot of Georgia, though of course none of the autrocities committed in here are anywhere even close.


It kept dropping my jaw every few pages. Hassan and Sohrabs stories are heartbreaking. Amir is a really nuanced character and I’m glad to have desliked him more than I liked him. Must-read

Meh.

Throughout all of this, it was meh. It was trying to be profound but failed, but it was somewhat close. The whole thing about the two main characters (Keiko and the weirdo) being different and thus expelled or ridiculed by society was somewhat touching and profound, but it really just missed a touch of…connection? It all felt rambled and scrambled

I HATE HATE HAAATED the conclusion. What the hell kind of ending was that? No concrete “bang” (dont say Keiko returning back to the supermarket mindset was good). The ending was just bad!!!

WINDCLAN YAY WINDCLAN YAY HARESTAR I LOVE WINDCLAN I LOVE TIGERSTAR I LOVEDDD THIS BOOK SO MUCH <33 MIYVARS CHEMI KATEBIS WIGNEBI

“Like a compass needle that points northc a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.”

Khaled Hosseini’s second book that I have read and again simply beautiful.


Jalil and Mariam’s story was perfectly filled with anger and mixed emotions. No words in regards to Nina and what that caused Mariam. Even with her death she had to ruin her daughter.

I liked the way Laila’s mother and Mariam had small moments of overlap and meeting . I was doubtful at first on how effectively he was going to entertwine Laila’s and Mariam’s stories but he did it so effortlessly and naturally that my doubts totally dissipated.

Both stories are entirely gutwrenching and quite numbing to read about. I ended up bargaining near the end that at least they weren’t dead, at least they were still alive (that got taken away from me eventually).

I was sooooo happy Tariq came back, it was unexpected of the writer to allow me such a pleasure and yet I was pleasantly surprised! I just love the prose and the effortlessly “casual” way such big information gets revelaled

I love the mention of pomegranate trees throughout his books, both in the Kite Runner and more subtly here.

ინგლისურად წავიკითხე, იმიტომ რომ ქართულად კითხვას გადავეჩვიე და ვიფიქრე კაი ქართველის დაწერილს წავიკითხავ ინგლისურად მეთქი.

დედაჩემს ვანახე რომ ვიყიდე და იმწამსვე დამცინა, ვერ გავიგე რატო, ახლა დავამთავრე კითხვა და მართლა ვერ ვხდები ასეთ ნაწარმოებმა როგორ მოიგო BBC-ის კონკურსი.


რა ჯანდაბა იყო??? მართლა სისულელეა! შეიძლება სხვა ნაწარმოებები უკეთესია მაგრამ ეს ძალიან უცნაური იყო.

კაი რაღაც პონტში სახალისოა და სასაცილოც კი მაგრამ ძალიან გავირვებული დავრჩი. მანქანასთან სექსი ქონდა ერთ პონტში თუ რა მოხდა ვინმემ გამარკვევინეთ?? :დდ

Reading in English because
1 - Want to see what its like reading this if given to English friends
2 - Easing myself back into reading in Georgia

Disregarding the various spelling, punctuation and grammatical mistakes (fully due to the poor translation), I think if you want to get a cultural reference across languages, you should atleast try and explain it somehow first. I understand for Georgians reading in Georgian the cultural references will come across much easier (and even reading in English as a Georgian they come across nicely) and thus don’t need explanation but if you want foreigners to fully understand cultural references explaining them in parantheses or maybe footnotes or something would’ve been nice! Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis does this very nicely.

As for the actual story itself, absolute tragedy. On one hand, their desperation to escape the USSR is not only extremely sobering and saddening but tragic. On the other hand, spoiled-for-the-time children of Georgian higher society who romanticised a victim-less hijacking is simply ridiculous to think about. People were going to die, THEY were probably going to die (either through capital punishment or something going wrong on the plane) and I just dont know why they went through with it. The saddest thing about the situation is Father Tevdore/Temur Chikhladze, being killed just so they could spread a bad visage of the Orthodox Church.

Horrifying to read about what they did to Tinatin’s baby.
Writing/the prose in English worth only a 3.5/5, story itself deserves a 5, just could’ve been written about better i think.

“To speak in our mother tounge is to speak only partially in Vietnamese, but entirely in war.”


Really nice book - reminds me alot abt my immigration journey (minus the war (sort of))
Its GOOD, like really good, but I dont see the appeal of it to the point of it being lifechanging?

Touching, unique, special - sure! But I’m not changed at all and the way people talk about this book gave me really high expectations

Anyway still rlly good tho