A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Kite Runner is a once in a lifetime novel that touches both your heart and soul. Hosseini's follow-up, A Thousand Splendid Sun, was a bit of a disappointment to me. Although the novel offers much that is interesting, it never seems to reach its full potential.

The book is separated in three acts. In the first, a young woman sees her mother die. Her father has disowned her so she is sent off to marry a much older man in the hopes that she will provide him with a son, a thing she is never able to do. In the second act, a young girl is trapped in Kabul during the war. Although she grows up happy, the war destroys her existence and soon, she also finds himself married to the older man in order to try and provide him with a son. In the final act, both women try to run away from their problems, from their abusive husband and from the horrors of the war.

I loved the sections of the book that described a world I'm not familiar with. The country's customs, the way these characters act and think were all very different to me. But I couldn't relate to any of these characters. None are likeable. I wish I could have cared more about the two heroines. Instead, I never really did.

I think the book also suffers from the fact that it was written in three parts. During most of the second part, the entire first act is forgotten, only to be brought back in the third. I wanted to go back to the earlier character. Intermittent chapters like in the third section should have been the rule of the game for the entire book.

It's not that Hosseini has written a bad book. It's just that this one is a lot like other stories of this kind we've seen before. And the moment something becomes interesting, the author skips to something different. This doesn't create suspense, but it does annoy the reader somewhat. Maybe I was expecting too much out of this novel.

A very sad tale of those who were left-out in post-Soviet, war-wretched Afghanistan. I haven't read the "Kite Runner" but saw the movie and was quite disappointed with the quality of production. I hope that they do justice to the 2nd book if ever a movie is made on it.

This book makes all women appreciate having the fortune of being born in America rather than the middle east. These were incredible women who had amazing survival skills. This is from the female perspective and the Kite Runner is from the male perspective of growing up in the middle east.

Oh wow.

I went into this book half-dreading it. I mean, can he even come close to The Kite Runner? That was such a great book, one of my favorites.

Well, Mr. Hosseini, it is your fault that it's almost 9am here and I'm tired. Why? I was up until 5am turning pages, I could NOT pry this book out of my hands. Once I hit around page 120, I was a goner. I HAD to finish it.

I won't say it's as good as Kite Runner - that would be a mistake. They are two different books, set in the same place/time (approximately anyway). The stories are different though. Several times, I cried so hard I couldn't read from all the blurring tears. This is a touching book, of two women whose lives converge, it's sad, but oh so beautifully told. The authors writing carries you away to this faraway place, making you be there, in the moment, with the people, in that climate, dealing with that oppression.

I am again struck by how different our lives were in the US during this time period (just 6-7 years ago) than it was in other countries. I cannot imagine living like some of them did.

I enjoyed the 2nd novel from Hosseini almost as much as Kite Runner, which I gave 5 stars. The author tells a fascinating human story with well-developed characters in rich prose that is all the more impressive because it is not the author's native tongue. Everyone should read Kite Runner, and once you've figured out why everyone loved the book, you'll want to read this novel, too, and you won't be disappointed.