A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Read for: Book Club, Global Reading Challenge 2010 – Asia

I just finished reading this book for the second time.  I have to admit, I really didn’t enjoy it the first time around.  I think I was expecting something more like The Kite Runner, with more of a plot, which it doesn’t have.  I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it a lot more  the second time around.  Since the first time I’ve read a lot more books about this part of the world in this time period and it’s helped me to appreciate what this book is really about.

The book is divided into four parts starting with Mariam, a young harami (bastard) girl whose father is a rich man.  Her mother hangs herself and Mariam finds herself married to a much older man and transported 650 miles across the country to Kabul.  Part two introduces Laila, an even younger woman who through an entirely different series of events, finds herself orphaned, pregnant and forced to marry the same man.  Rasheed is not a happy man and he takes it out on his two wives.  Eventually the two women become friends and develop a mother-daughter relationship.

A major theme of the novel is the oppression of women as the Taliban comes to power and removes virtually all womens rights.  Before I read this book and The Kite Runner (and other books from this part of the world) I didn’t know anything about the trials that people suffered under the hands of the Taliban.  I also realize how oppressive some of these regimes were.  I’ve really like reading these books because I think it’s important for us to be informed about the world around us.

Besides that, though, the book did have some sweet and hopeful moments.  There were parts that made me cry for these women, knowing that although they are fictional, there are women having to make the same tough decisions and go through the same struggles that Mariam and Laila did.  Even though the book was sad in parts and had the potential to be depressing, I never found that it got me down.  It seemed that through everything these two women had to endure, they always found something to cling to, something to help them carry on.  Even when it seemed that all hope was lost, they still had strength.

So, although this book was a very different type of book than The Kite Runner (which was very plot driven), it still told a very powerful story.  I found I was glad I gave this one a second chance.  I’m still not adding it to my top ten or anything, but I did like it a lot better this time around!