BOOK REVIEW 14: A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS: KHALED HOSSEINI

 

GENERAL OVERVIEW:

RATINGS:3.5/5

GENRE: War, Relations, Lies, Predicament

AUTHOR: KHALED HOSSEINI

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Khaled Hosseini was born on 4 March 1965 in Kabul,Afghanistan. He is best known as an Afghan-American novelist, physician, activist, humanitarian and UNHCR goodwill ambassador.

After graduating from college, he worked as a doctor in California.He has published three novels. The most notably his 2003 debut The Kite Runner. Following the success of The Kite Runner he retired from medicine to write full-time.

All three of his novels became bestsellers: The Kite Runner (2003)  

 ,A Thousand Splendid Suns(2007) And the Mountains Echoed (2013) debuted near the top of the Times list.

INTRODUCTION:

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the second novel from the author of The KITE RUNNER, Khaled Hosseini. The plot and the background of the novel is same as the first novel. The war,violence, internal conflict, murders, betrayal and lot more intriguing and intimidating scenes. This novel explains the war between 1960- 2000 even in more detail account from the eyes of two women.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years. The time period before the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban. It also provides a new ray of hope to post-Taliban rebuilding. It depicts how political turmoil and disturbances leads one's life to become a dead end without a chance of retrieving back.

 It is a tale of two generations of characters brought together by the tragic sweep of war. The two characters are Mariam and Laila. They are far too apart yet far too close. Their personal lives are very different. There is not even a clue that makes them interrelated. But how the story goes on and they develop an inextricable relationship towards the end is something you will not be able to grasp all of a sudden. We follow them as they form a close bond through these enduring the relentless abuse. The regular taunts, harrasment and cruelty of their husband. The book is divided into four parts:

 one each about the girl's lives before meeting, 

one about their lives together with their husband, 

 one about Laila's life afterward.

ANALYSIS:

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

A snippet of an Afgani poem included in the novel is the title of the novel itself. The poem explains the significance of the love the poet feels for Kabul and the fact that the city hurts the poet. The title becomes a reference both to the city of Kabul and to the two women of Afghanistan who are unaware of the splendid suns and shimmering moons amidst violence and conflict in the beautiful city of Kabul.

It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of illegitimate relations, mismatched marriage along with the torture and harrasment a woman is forced to face. It is a story of an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible and unconditional love that is definitely to make you poignant. It is a story about patriotism; the sacrifices a family makes for their nation. Not only it is intimidating it is lot more emotional. The way the author presents the aftermath of emptiness in Laila's home is nerve wrecking. How her mother grieves for her son's and neglects Laila's presence as their children is something hurtful for a kid. 

The author explains the details of war in an inextricable manner. The bombardments, flying of rockets, cracks and holes everywhere,ruins after damage is so usual for the two major characters. 

They feel the war. Because it is women who have suffered the most as the consequences of war. The new rules set up for the females of Afghanistan is hideous and heart wrenching.The little bit of freedom they were able to excercise before the war is completely banned. Starting from education to government offices their presence is unforgiving. They had to be compulsorily accompanied by their male members when out in public. They have to hide behind the burkas too. Those empowered and confident women working on various sectors before the war were forced and coerced to shut up. Those who had already abandoned Burkas and working independently are to be dependent on their husbands ,were forced to don it up again. They had to rely on their husbands for everything.They are either beaten or murdered or tortured or harrased if somehow they violate the rules. 

Laila’s story explores a lot of taboos too. The orthodox mentality of the society about relationships and marriage for a girl like Laila's age is untolerable. The losses and loneliness she faces during the war results her taking irascible decisions. Such decisions include marrying Rasheed who is triple the age of her. 

Mariam on the other hand who is already tolerating her husband's turmoil and harrasment is burdened by her husband's second marriage that too with a girls child. You feel like strangling Rasheed yourself for such crimes. 

What’s truly amazing about Hosseini’s writing is the depiction of the war and its effects through these characters and it's precisely described war scenes.

CRITICISM:

Readers are made so very hopeful in the beginning that you tend to believe that the story is gonna end the same way it started. But the twist in the plot which is so very hideous and vague is so hard to believe that it did happen at all. The way both Laila and Mariam spend their adolescent years in such tragic could be lessened somehow. One scene where Mariam is forced to chew stones for not cooking the way Rasheed wants is so disgusting.

Hopes of a new life lead to an unselfish and shocking decision, changing the course of their futures forever. 

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

A thousand splendid is a pleasant read through an unpleasant non fiction. It is so filled with strong emotions that it is one of my favorite books.The way both women fight for justice towards the end for what they were always suppressed for is worth a clap. So all in all this book is one of the good reads which will not be forgotten for a long time.

BY SANJITA NAPIT