A Thousand Splendid Suns

You know you are in the hands of a masterful storyteller when you put a book down only because you have no choice - life drags you away and it's a physical and emotional wrench to let it go, even for a moment. When all you can think as you go about compulsory tasks are the story and the characters. While you are away, you wonder what they are doing, where the narrator is going to take them and you care about their fates deeply. Such is the effect of A Thousand Splendid Suns. The characters live beyond the pages - not merely at the end, but throughout the reading experience, so realistically and gorgeously have they been drawn.Just as the sublime The Kite Runner told the tale of doomed male friendship, ATSS tells the story of two very different Afghani women: Mariam - shy, subservient, filled with self-doubt and yet, despite what life has meted out, is also honest and possessed of an innocence that is both her greatest strength and weakness. Then there is the beautiful, smart and kind Laila. Raised under very different roofs and with different expectations of their future, fate in the form of political and sectarian upheaval throws these women together and what happens before, during and after is heart-wrenchingly bitter-sweet.Hosseini knows not only how to capture the reader's imagination but our hearts as well. Told without sentimentality but nonetheless with an almost unbearable sweetness and pathos, ATSS unapologetically describes what the women of Afghanistan (and many men, children, families and thus communities) were forced to endure. The rampant misogyny, sexism and horrific abuses; terror, hope, the loss, the grind, the joy in the smallest and simplest of things; their constant sacrifices. Their resilience is formidable and humbling; their strength amazing - as is their capacity to forgive. By focussing primarily on Mariam and Laila (and those who play important roles in shaping who and what they become) Hosseini gives us a searing insight into not only the plight of those who are helpless pawns in a brutal battle for control of a weakened state, but Western prejudices, sense of entitlement and misunderstanding as well as revealing the ugliness and terrible beauty of a culture so few of us understand except through snatches from sensationalized news bulletins or from foreign correspondents with a brief to fill. That there are those resistant to as well as complicit in oppression, suffer because of wilful ignorance and the brutality of others; the way in which religion and culture can impose horrific restraints when reduced to power struggles while at the same time gesturing to a proud nobility is evident in the novel. Inevitably, as is the case when religion, sex and gender become politicized, there are scapegoats who pay for the hubris and cruelty of others - for more than a lifetime. The damage inflicted can last for generations.I didn't want this book to end. My heart soared, it plummeted; I gasped, cried, held my breath and as I read felt physically pummelled then embraced, experiencing the 30 years the tale covers as a visceral thing that left me psychologically and imaginatively battered but richer in ways that count. But, I also felt ashamed. Ashamed for thoughts I may have harboured deep down, for prejudices I may not have even realized I held until this novel exposed them to me, and for that, I am grateful.This is a beautiful, deeply moving book that I cannot recommend highly enough. It was a privilege to read and now to share.

Much as in THE KITE RUNNER, A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS occasionally suffers from some fairly "high-schoolish" prose and sometimes the plot twists stretch my willingness to suspend disbelief. (Stretch...not break.) KITE RUNNER has one gigantic leap like this in its final third, and so does A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS.I mention these items right up front, because the amount of praise I'd want to heap on this book overall so overwhelms any criticism, I want to make sure everyone understands that Hosseini is not the greatest writer ever. He is, however, a fervent storyteller and deeply immersed in the societies and characters he explores. There is no doubting his commitment to telling a great story and drawing you in. His work is very cinematic (I mean that as a good thing here) because it constantly hurtles forward. The plot moves briskly, but the growth of the characters is just as snappy.In my adult life, I find that I don't have as much time as I'd like to read for pleasure. Often, my reading comes in bed at night, and I fall asleep much sooner than I'd like. Once in awhile, when on an airplane, I'll get to read a bit more...but even then, I drift off or get distracted. Well, this summer, I was on a 4 hour flight, and I read more than half this book in that one sitting, never once tempted to set it aside and rest my eyes. It just blazed ahead and I was fully immersed.Hosseini revisits familiar territory (Afghanistan) but where KITE RUNNER focused on a primarily male experience, and also spent a lot of time in the United States...SUN stays almost entirely in this beleaguered nation, and is viewed through the eyes of two very different and VERY fascinating women. The turns that their lives take are Hosseini's way not only of showing the social evolution (and de-evolution) over the last few decades in Afghanistan, but the political and religious upheavals as well. In the hands of a less-skilled storyteller, it would seem like a dusty and not very clever device. ("Oh look, now that the communists have taken over, let's send one of the characters to a communist run school so we can hear how the Russians did things.") And while intellectually I understand that this is basically what the author is doing...his pacing, his beautifully imagined characters and his obvious love for the nation make the narrative, the "fiction", so very compelling.The book is full of death and sadness. Many events occur which are horrific and not the least bit pleasant for the reader. Yet in the end, it is an amazingly uplifting book. A "happy" ending? I supposed it kinda is...but it is really bittersweet. I closed the book, grateful to have read it...and the best sign of all...wishing I could follow the characters some more.I highly recommend the book, despite the flaws. Also, I think the book could be read and enjoyed by a teen audience as well...much like KITE RUNNER, I believe it could be an important and inspiring book for young people. It would warrant a PG-13 rating, for sure...but the mildly scandalous moments are more than made up by so many uplifting, informative or transporting passages.