Right from the beginning, Khaled Hosseini had something to live up to. When you author a first book as critically acclaimed and widely read as ‘The Kite Runner’, you know expectations will be running high for the book that follows in its wake. With ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, Hosseini has successfully managed to meet those expectations. Judging by the fact that apart from the political setting of Afghanistan there is not much else common with ‘The Kite Runner’ and Hosseini has still managed to weave an extremely compelling tale, I would even say that it surpasses those expectations.
Hosseini has stuck to a backdrop that he knows well, and that also worked well for him in ‘The Kite Runner’. As the story moves across generations, Afghanistan is painted as a country with a once-rich past which starts disintegrating rapidly as the rule of power moves from the Soviets to the Mujahideen, the Taliban and finally the US-backed government with Hamid Karzai at the helm. You feel for the innocent civilian who is forced to bear the brunt of each attack as the wars between different factions progress, as his life falls apart with his loved ones dropping by the wayside or his home and possessions being destroyed in the shelling. But this is not the story of just any innocent civilian, though the protagonists are very much innocent themselves. In that respect, just as ‘The Kite Runner’ was primarily told through the eyes of males, this story is about women, whose condition can be argued to have been much the worse of the two. One reading of the rules of the Taliban for women in Afghanistan makes you grasp this reality at once - and these are only selected lines:
You will not, under any circumstances, show your face. You will cover with burqa when outside. If you do not, you will be severely beaten.
You will not wear charming clothes.
You will not speak unless spoken to.
You will not make eye contact with men.
You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be beaten.
You will not paint your nails. If you do, you will lose a finger.
Girls are forbidden from attending school. All schools ofr girls will be closed immediately.
Women are forbidden from working.
If you are found guilty of adultery, you will be stoned to death.
Listen. Listen well. Obey.
And so, this is the story of two remarkably strong women, Mariam and Laila, born about nineteen years apart, and the strange kinship they come to share after being thrown together under extenuating circumstances. As we are taken through their initial years - Mariam first, then Laila, we realise that their pasts could not be more different. Education, the harbinger of intellectual curiosity and freedom, is the key distinguisher, with the city-bred Laila actively encouraged to speak her mind by her progressive parents, and Mariam not allowed to be educated at all, coming as she does from rural Herat. When their stories converge and they finally meet each other, the bitter, lonely Mariam is understandably antagonistic towards the much younger Laila, unaware of all that she has been through. But they begin to realise that as women, they share more than just their ill-tempered, scheming husband Rasheed, whom they are both pushed into marriage with as teens. The increasingly bloody wars have left both women without family and friends, and as Rasheed’s rule of tyranny within the household begins to tell on them both at the same time as the Taliban takes over Afghanistan with their impossible rules, Mariam finds a strength she never had, and Laila a saviour.
Khaled Hosseini’s language is tellingly lyrical as he depicts the Afghanistan of yore (‘vines pregnant with plump grapes’), but as the novel moves forward it is his story-telling abilities which carry the book through. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down till I reached the last page, and then to ruminate over what it must be like to be an Afghan woman today. This is after all fiction and therefore, in itself, part of the book’s success - if I was pushed to think about the issue because of a fictional story, then there must be others who will be too. And for that, Hosseini must be applauded.
Also by anjalirama
- 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' - A Review - August 22nd, 2007
Hey
Reead both your reviews — reluctant fundamentalist and the thousand splendid suns. Nice but hafta say dont agree with either. Actually felt ust the opposite– Kinda loved the fundamentalist and thought that thousand suns after the kite runner was way too… Ummm it did not make me feel anything– it was just a good book— maybe the expectations were too high,
Reluctant fundamentalist on the other hand was an eye opener. Surprisingly the aspects you did not like were the ones that make the most sense to me– they do say that reviews are your own perspective but since I felt the extreme opposite thought would write in and tell.
cheers
I think it was not one of the most honest reviews i have read so far. No doubt the expectations were running high on him and he did justice to his readers by once again giving them a treat to read BUT it was not as good as The Kite Runner. To me .. Kite Runner was a story he wanted to TELL and this was a story he wanted to SELL.
Ginnie: Thanks for your thoughts. I felt that the Reluctant Fundamentalist could have done with a lot more exploration - when it ended, it felt all too sudden. Changez’ character was just beginning to resonate when the story ended - so as a reader I felt short-changed. That’s what I felt I had to mention in the review. As for ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, let’s face it - there are very few novelists whose second books are as good as their first - and no doubt Hosseini was going to face that challenge from Day One. I thought the way Mariam and Laila came to bond at the same time as Afghanistan was going through all the tumult, contributed to making the story all the more strong. In that aspect, Hosseini was brilliant. Plus, it was so visual - it’s a book I can see being made into a film very easily. I think the key here is not to compare it to The Kite Runner, though that is easier said than done, I know!
Dramatist: Your honesty is appreciated. But as an individual story, I think ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is a book that is a worthy of being read. Unlike, say,’Princess’, by Jean P. Sasson which is based on real incidents, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ has a strong STORY whose characters have backgrounds that make it so easy to empathize with them, though they are fictional. ‘The Kite Runner’ was a much more controversial subject - but if you think about the story independent of any comparison, I think it stands up to the test of time.