"It happened on a Thursday."
Khaled Hosseini is back with A Thousand Splendid Suns, a novel centered entirely around the lives and trials of two fictional Afghani women. When Mariam was a child, her father would visit her once a week at the little kolba where she and Nana lived. He would sit her on his lap and tell her stories about the city where she'd been born, and for the rest of the day she would glow with the knowledge that he loved her. Now Mariam is fifteen, and for her birthday she wants nothing more than to watch Pinocchio at her father's cinema. When he doesn't show up, she goes to his house, where he lives with his wives and legitimate children. Before she knows it, a sudden tragedy and betrayal lands her a miserable marriage to a cruel man she doesn't love. Years later, a girl named Laila loses the love of her life to shifting Afghani politics. When their lives intertwine, these women discover they can build a better future, but at the steepest price imaginable.
In true Hosseini fashion, the tale of Mariam and Laila is full of extraordinary details that make it very true-to-life. The settings are rich with vivid descriptions that breathe life into every scene, from the dried-out grasses around Mariam's kolba to the tight-knit community that Laila calls home. Supporting characters are fleshed-out reasonably well, with distinctive voices and strong opinions that make them stand out in any crowd. The cast is small, though, and while this the development of each internal arc is more obvious, few secondary characters hold the spotlight long enough for us to truly get to know them.
The plot of this piece revolves around the tribulations in the everyday lives of two mistreated young women, so action and agency aren't all that common. Most of the emphasis is placed on what happens to them, how they respond, and the ways in which this changes who they are and how they view the world. This is both intriguing and disappointing, as it provides a deeper insight into the minds and culture of these women, yet also slows the plot almost to a standstill for quite some time. Still, it's nice to have a story that isn't about chasing the bad guy or fixing things before the stakes grow worse.
Throughout the story, several questionable things take place of which readers and pre-readers alike should be forewarned. The English vocabulary utilized is generally clean, with perhaps a few curses slipping between the cracks; characters speak Farsi now and then, and call Mariam a cruel name in Farsi in the opening chapters. Islam makes its own appearance, but the perspective is mainly negative, as Mariam and Laila suffer at the hands of men who force harsh religious customs upon them. Perhaps the biggest factor to consider is our heroines' personal relationships. Mariam is young when she marries, and her much older husband is physically demanding and, later, rather unkind. Laila, on the other hand, knows love briefly. While the physical side of these areas is not explicit in the moment, there's enough detail that younger readers might want to put this one off for a while. Despite the slow pacing, there is a bit of somewhat graphic violence.
I would recommend this book to older readers looking for a glimpse into the life of women in Afghanistan. While the premise obviously does not reflect the background of every Afghani lady, the hardships Laila and Mariam go through are enough to win the sympathy of any reader. The settings are overflowing with beautiful descriptions that truly set the scene, and the few recurring characters support the plot nicely. However, aside from that of our heroines, there is little in the way of internal development, and it doesn't help that the slow plot is the primary method of moving this story along. Add in violence, a broken marriage, and romance with a touch too much detail, and Kholed Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns doesn't quite live up to its initial promise. Still, it's got an interesting premise and strong protagonists, so it deserves three stars.
The plot of this piece revolves around the tribulations in the everyday lives of two mistreated young women, so action and agency aren't all that common. Most of the emphasis is placed on what happens to them, how they respond, and the ways in which this changes who they are and how they view the world. This is both intriguing and disappointing, as it provides a deeper insight into the minds and culture of these women, yet also slows the plot almost to a standstill for quite some time. Still, it's nice to have a story that isn't about chasing the bad guy or fixing things before the stakes grow worse.
Throughout the story, several questionable things take place of which readers and pre-readers alike should be forewarned. The English vocabulary utilized is generally clean, with perhaps a few curses slipping between the cracks; characters speak Farsi now and then, and call Mariam a cruel name in Farsi in the opening chapters. Islam makes its own appearance, but the perspective is mainly negative, as Mariam and Laila suffer at the hands of men who force harsh religious customs upon them. Perhaps the biggest factor to consider is our heroines' personal relationships. Mariam is young when she marries, and her much older husband is physically demanding and, later, rather unkind. Laila, on the other hand, knows love briefly. While the physical side of these areas is not explicit in the moment, there's enough detail that younger readers might want to put this one off for a while. Despite the slow pacing, there is a bit of somewhat graphic violence.
I would recommend this book to older readers looking for a glimpse into the life of women in Afghanistan. While the premise obviously does not reflect the background of every Afghani lady, the hardships Laila and Mariam go through are enough to win the sympathy of any reader. The settings are overflowing with beautiful descriptions that truly set the scene, and the few recurring characters support the plot nicely. However, aside from that of our heroines, there is little in the way of internal development, and it doesn't help that the slow plot is the primary method of moving this story along. Add in violence, a broken marriage, and romance with a touch too much detail, and Kholed Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns doesn't quite live up to its initial promise. Still, it's got an interesting premise and strong protagonists, so it deserves three stars.
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