A Thousand Splendid Suns

First off, I must say that this is an important book. There are some reviewers who claim that Khaled Hosseini must have written this with the western reader in mind. This may be true, but in my opinion it is a good thing. He has brought the plight of Afghanistan into the living rooms of those who live in the free world. Some of us may not have ever known or bothered to learn about the horrors that have taken place there; this book makes it personal. I cared about, cried with and for Mariam, Laila, Tariq and their families. I was outraged on their behalf. I wept many times while reading about Mariam's strength of endurance and what it cost her. I wanted to kill Rasheed, Mariam and Laila's sadistic husband. The depiction of the Taliban's sadistic regime left me feeling shell-shocked and harrowed. I honestly don't know how anyone survives such things as these.
There are other reviewers who claim that the "fairy-tale happy ending" ruined the story for them, that it was unrealistic. Well, I did a little research on Kabul. It seems a western reporter went there and remarked to a survivor in Kabul that everyone must be in terrible sorrow. "Are you kidding?" responded the survivor. "We are happy! After all this to finally have some peace, it is a happy thing!" Out of the horse's mouth. So it seems Mr. Hosseini's ending was not so far off the mark of reality after all.
This is an important book because of all that it made me feel, and I am thankful to live in a country where Afghani expatriates are free to write books like this. My life is richer for the experience and privelege of reading A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I enjoyed the book. Despite having a mostly sad story line, the two female main characters demonstrated courage, love, and hope in an otherwise brutal and oppressive marriage. This book is not for children since it frequently describes sexual encounters in a somewhat graphic, though tasteful, manner.

No need to recount the story since other reviewers have already done that. I'll just express some thoughts that occurred to me as I read the book:

1) The book describes at least two lines of Islamic thought. One is the oppressive, brutal Taliban variety that treats women harshly, prohibits them from study or work, and views them as male property. The other is a more open minded, progressive variety that encourages women to learn and work. The author clearly prefers the progressive variety. The story shows the danger of having zealots in control of a country. We're truly fortunate to be in a country where one ideology or religion does not control us, particularly an oppressive ideology like the Talibans.

2) The story has two women who grew up without having to wear burqas, marrying a man of the repressive variety who required them to wear a burqa in public. Having lived in Afghanistan for several months, this brought back memories of the women wearing burqas, how uncomfortable they seemed, and the double standard. It reminded me of a time at a lake near San Antonio where I saw three Muslim women sitting on the beach in direct summer sun (very hot) wearing black abayas, waiting and watching while their husbands wearing swim shorts and no shirt played in the water with the kids. It escapes me how some Muslim men don't see how cruel and unfair this double standard is. They claim the cover is for purity, yet if that were true the males would have to cover themselves as well to maintain their purity. Yet, nowhere do we see male burqas or abayas.

3) Most of the story line was about a brutal wife beater. For the wife abusers, the burqa is a great way to conceal bruises.

4) Women under the Taliban had no rights and that is true in many middle eastern cultures still. I'm glad our western cultures got past the "women as chattel" concept. We can only hope the Afghan culture and the rest of the middle east will wake up and stop oppressing half their populations.

5) The Taliban sense of justice is truly warped. In the story, a husband beats a woman, another woman tries to stop him from doing that and ends up killing him to protect both their lives....so the Taliban sentence HER to death because women have no right to disobey their husbands. Scary. Although this story is fiction, it is based on reality.

6) The book reminded me of a Japanese-made film about the life of a woman and her daughter struggling to live under the Taliban. Saw it in Kabul but can't remember the name. Very powerful and depressing movie. It brings the evilness of the Taliban into crystal clear focus, as does this book.

7) The father of one of the women had ostracised her because she was a "harami" (bastard child of his). He refused to acknowledge her and instead married her off to a brutal man far away. At the end, he attempts to gain forgiveness, but it's too late. Made me think of the importance of caring for our children and ensuring they know we love them.

8) The tension that exists in Afghan culture between arranged marriages and marriages desired by both parties is shown. Another example of how the culture is behind the times and inconsiderate of the feelings of people wanting marriage. Too often, the reality there is that a young woman is married off to an old guy that she finds repulsive and, well, old...and often she knows a young man she finds attractive, yet is unable to marry.

9) The ending was powerful with Laila going to the birthplace of her deceased co-wife to honor her and feel connection to the woman.

I first listened to CD's of this book on a very long and boring car trip. Of course I had already read and immensely enjoyed The Kite Runner. Well, this is even better, although somewhat more harrowing. It shares the same elegance of writing style, surprising, when one considers that English is not Hosseini's first language. The local color of Afghanistan is fascinating, but more interesting yet is the detail of injustices to women that is so unlike that which exists in Western society. Even though the book is, I presume, fiction, there is nothing self-serving or deliberately sensational about it. To say it is merely a good read is to do it a dis-service. Marvellous!

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a better book than the kite runner in my opinion. The pages exude genuine feeling...it is amazing how the author captures the full sentiments of betrayal with his candid descriptions. This is the heartbreaking tale of two womem, both struggling to find their way in a world that seems bent on caging them in. Despite the odds, they manage to find their escape from hardship in their mutual friendship. Beautiful... a must read!

The kite runner was one of the best novels I ever read. A thousand splendid suns comes close, but falls a little short. Which is like saying that Tiger Woods had an off year in 2007. Anything this man writes is worth reading.