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Book Review #24
Jun. 13th, 2008 03:46 pmBook: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Historical fiction
Length: 367 pp.
Grade: A
Amazon Summary: Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny—"There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten"—is endorsed by custom and law. Hosseini gives a forceful but nuanced portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status. His tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters.
My Thoughts: I finished this book in less than twenty-four hours. From the very first chapter, I got pulled into the story of Mariam, of Afghanistan, of the terrible inequality of men and women still in today's world. I don't normally read books like this—the last book I read that dealt with this same basic topic was Princess by Jean Sasson, and that story takes place in Saudi Arabia—so this was a new experience for me, and one that I won't soon forget.
This story was so... poignant and beautiful. Mariam and Laila were two characters that I will not soon forget. What they went through is so hard to imagine. As I was reading the book, I was constantly thinking: How could that happen? Why are things like that? How could things be that, for lack of a better word, backward? Everything about the story, everything Mariam and Laila went through, was written so vividly that I couldn't help getting involved. Even though I live in the United States, where things couldn't be more different than the culture in Afghanistan, I couldn't help feeling connected to their plight.
A lot of people consider this book a character study—the study of Mariam and Laila's growth as people and women in some of the best and worst times for women in Afghanistan. I definitely agree with this. This type of book, this character study, isn't what I normally read, but it was so poignant. It wasn't light reading, but it read like light reading... if that makes sense.
Mariam and Laila went through so much. They are two extremely different women, but they both went through the same things and came out stronger for it. Mariam is one of those quietly enduring women, the sort of person that you can't help admiring for their strength. For twenty-seven years of her marriage, she had deal with the sort of sexist husband I shudder at having to live with, and yet she never complained. She was strong, and I admire her for that. And through those twenty-seven years of abuse, she never once lost that... well... the only word I can use for it is "spunk" that led her to get her vengeance on her husband, to put it in those terms. She was an incredibly forgiving, kind woman, and she is definitely one of my favorite characters in the story.
However, Laila remains my favorite character. To tell the truth, I think that Laila went through a bit more than Mariam did, and came out stronger for it. She didn't go through too much in her earlier years—other than her mother being... depressed, I guess—but things started going bad as she entered her teenage years. Although she fell in love with her best friend, Tariq, he had to leave after things in Kabul (the town in which they lived) got worse, and she had to marry Rasheed, Mariam's husband, since her parents died in rocket fire the day they decided to leave. And that's only the start of her story...
Believe me, her story was so poignant, so heart-breaking, that I nearly cried. The way Tariq and Laila's love played out was... wow. It struck me as so real, even though it was so devastatingly sad. Everything about it, from their childhood friendship to Tariq's reluctance to get married to his protectiveness of her to their first kiss to their hour or so of making love before Tariq left and their separation and the rest of their story, firmly pressed my "Awwww such a sad but beautiful love story" button. It was the perfect blend of angst and love, and I ended up absolutely adoring it at the end.
So, to chop this off before I ramble on, both Mariam's and Laila's story was heartbreaking and yet so beautiful at the same time. Laila's impacted me a bit more than Mariam's did, but Mariam's was still incredibly powerful. This book was a new experience for me, and I can't wait to read more books by Khaled Hosseini. Since I've heard a lot of good things about The Kite Runner, and since it's on the list of books I have to choose three from for summer reading, I'll probably read that one quite soon... and I can't wait!
Genre: Historical fiction
Length: 367 pp.
Grade: A
Amazon Summary: Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny—"There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten"—is endorsed by custom and law. Hosseini gives a forceful but nuanced portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status. His tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters.
My Thoughts: I finished this book in less than twenty-four hours. From the very first chapter, I got pulled into the story of Mariam, of Afghanistan, of the terrible inequality of men and women still in today's world. I don't normally read books like this—the last book I read that dealt with this same basic topic was Princess by Jean Sasson, and that story takes place in Saudi Arabia—so this was a new experience for me, and one that I won't soon forget.
This story was so... poignant and beautiful. Mariam and Laila were two characters that I will not soon forget. What they went through is so hard to imagine. As I was reading the book, I was constantly thinking: How could that happen? Why are things like that? How could things be that, for lack of a better word, backward? Everything about the story, everything Mariam and Laila went through, was written so vividly that I couldn't help getting involved. Even though I live in the United States, where things couldn't be more different than the culture in Afghanistan, I couldn't help feeling connected to their plight.
A lot of people consider this book a character study—the study of Mariam and Laila's growth as people and women in some of the best and worst times for women in Afghanistan. I definitely agree with this. This type of book, this character study, isn't what I normally read, but it was so poignant. It wasn't light reading, but it read like light reading... if that makes sense.
Mariam and Laila went through so much. They are two extremely different women, but they both went through the same things and came out stronger for it. Mariam is one of those quietly enduring women, the sort of person that you can't help admiring for their strength. For twenty-seven years of her marriage, she had deal with the sort of sexist husband I shudder at having to live with, and yet she never complained. She was strong, and I admire her for that. And through those twenty-seven years of abuse, she never once lost that... well... the only word I can use for it is "spunk" that led her to get her vengeance on her husband, to put it in those terms. She was an incredibly forgiving, kind woman, and she is definitely one of my favorite characters in the story.
However, Laila remains my favorite character. To tell the truth, I think that Laila went through a bit more than Mariam did, and came out stronger for it. She didn't go through too much in her earlier years—other than her mother being... depressed, I guess—but things started going bad as she entered her teenage years. Although she fell in love with her best friend, Tariq, he had to leave after things in Kabul (the town in which they lived) got worse, and she had to marry Rasheed, Mariam's husband, since her parents died in rocket fire the day they decided to leave. And that's only the start of her story...
Believe me, her story was so poignant, so heart-breaking, that I nearly cried. The way Tariq and Laila's love played out was... wow. It struck me as so real, even though it was so devastatingly sad. Everything about it, from their childhood friendship to Tariq's reluctance to get married to his protectiveness of her to their first kiss to their hour or so of making love before Tariq left and their separation and the rest of their story, firmly pressed my "Awwww such a sad but beautiful love story" button. It was the perfect blend of angst and love, and I ended up absolutely adoring it at the end.
So, to chop this off before I ramble on, both Mariam's and Laila's story was heartbreaking and yet so beautiful at the same time. Laila's impacted me a bit more than Mariam's did, but Mariam's was still incredibly powerful. This book was a new experience for me, and I can't wait to read more books by Khaled Hosseini. Since I've heard a lot of good things about The Kite Runner, and since it's on the list of books I have to choose three from for summer reading, I'll probably read that one quite soon... and I can't wait!
