Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

I have just finished reading Khaled Hosseini’s second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. As promised, here is my review.

This is an amazing book, but for anyone who read his first, The Kite Runner, they will not be surprised by this. Hosseini has a wonderful way of making Afghanistan very real. His writing is vivid and descriptive, but well balanced, so that you feel as though you are watching a movie, or are right there seeing what is going on.

Once again, this is a moving and emotional novel that will keep you up and that you will be pondering for weeks, months, maybe even years after reading it. Especially intriguing is how Hosseini has managed to write from the perspective of two women in such an insightful way. As a woman reader, I admit that the depth with which Hosseini understood his two characters, Mariam and Leila, is amazing.

A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the stories of Mariam and Leila, alternating between their points of view. It takes place primarily in Kabul, but with some early presence in Herat and some later presence in Pakistan. At heart, it is a story of Kabul. The story begins in 1964 with a five year-old Mariam, and ends in 2003, spanning over the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the defeat and withdrawl of the Russians that led to the warlords in-fighting, followed by the rise of the Taliban, and ending with the beginning of democratic rule in which the warlords are given legitimate posts in the government.

There is no doubt that the novel is the story of two women from different backgrounds, different points of view, and even different generations, who end up living and working, surviving together. Mariam is the illegitimate country child who is forced into an unwanted marriage with a businessman in Kabul and sent away from her family. Leila is a young privelaged woman who becomes orphaned and pushed into joining Mariam’s household by a terrible secret and Mariam’s manipulative husband.

Both women suffer in ways that we in the West can barely imagine, but that are probably fairly accurate. The only issue that I have with the portrayal is that so much abuse and suffering is packed into two characters, and little is presented to show that their experience is not the only experience of women in Afghanistan, that some may have less eventful and abusive lives. Also, the husband, Rasheed is a fairly one-dimensional character. He is very vivid, real, and frightening, but with seemingly not even one redeeming quality. Yet in every evil person, there is some element of good, and vice versa in every good person. In Rasheed, no good is ever found. The closest he ever comes to goodness is in his doting on his son, but even this is spoiled by the obviously selfish nature of the doting, and how quickly he turns even on the innocent child.

I don’t want to ruin the story by telling details. What I will say is that it is extremely moving, worth the read, and well-worth the price of the book. All of the best elements of fiction are present: love, romance, betrayal, dishonesty, crisis, scandal, the best and worst of human behavior. There is precious little that will make you laugh, mostly you will cry, often you will tense with anger, but in the end, you will see the splendor of what promises to be the sun rising again for the people of Afghanistan.

To read other reviews, check out the links gathered at Seekers Digest.

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Can’t Wait… to get my hands on this book

Video of Khaled Hosseini discussing his new book