Here's the NY Times article.

Michiko Kakutani, in the New York Times article “A Woman’s Lot in Kabul, Lower than a House Cat’s,” reviewed the novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini. Kakutani used persuasive devices to explain the story of the novel and give his general opinion.

One of the best persuasive devices he used was in explaining the difference between Hosseini’s previous novel, “The Kite Runner,” and his current novel. “The Kite Runner” was a huge success so reminding his audience that the author wrote that book as well adds credibility to his positive statements. Kakutani also explains the common themes among the two books and how some traits are similar between the characters. This lets the readers know that if they liked the concept of the first book they would most likely enjoy the second. A background on the author also adds to the evaluation. Whenever I love a book, I want to know more about the author’s perspective and if he has more published books. Another factor Kakutani uses in evaluating this book is explaining the character traits. This gives the reader an idea if they can relate to the characters in any way and also the situations that the characters are going through.

Although Kakutani did describe the characters I feel that he set them in a negative light, saying they were like that of fairy-tales. I have read both of these books and I felt that the characters were appropriately deep, considering both are introduced as children. I also feel that Kakutani gave away too many scenes in the novel and said they very melodramatic. I disagree with his negative tone about the novel yet I do feel that the criteria he used to analyze the novel were persuasive. If I had not read these books, I think his article would dissuade me to not read it because of his explanation of the characters and scenes. Otherwise, I highly recommend both “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns!”