A Thousand Splendid Suns is a heart wrenching story of the pain that some women have been going through due to conflict and culture in Afghanistan.
It is a farewell ode to the city of Kabul
One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.
Khaled Hosseini has the gift of making the characters come alive. It is like you are living a life, feeling the tenderness of the characters, the surroundings become all the more familiar.
He had indeed set high standards with “The KiteRunner”, but this particular book would not leave you disappointed.
The innocence of a child, the playfulness, the mystic beauty, the curiosity and the urge to be loved – all these feelings are what you get submerged with. The characters have to leave their home places due to tragic events, invasion by Soviets and the infighting among the Afghan Warlords.
The agony of Mariam at being called a ‘harami’ since a child, her longing for gifts from her father and the tragic death of her mother sets the tone of the book. She suffers through her life with a dominating and somewhat savage husband. The pain of miscarriages and abuses fills her life with misery. Another girl named Laila grows with dreams of bright future, just to be taken away by the conflict. Family dies, love of her life has to leave her and she ends up being the wife of the same husband as Mariam.
Among the wild bushes lay some flowers as well. There are small joys, small bouts of happiness accosted to these girls. They try to find joy in the beautiful valleys, the flowing streams, and the thrill of running away from the pain in the end. Killing of an unjust and cruel man was liberating.
What amazes one is how early are the girls forced to marry (15) and expected to follow so many rules and regulations. The Purdah system, a woman cannot go out without taking a man along with her, the biased rules of the society towards men, the in-numerous beatings that a wife takes, the curses sprayed on them for not bearing a boy child.
The fear of being stoned at a man's allegation of a bad character and if they escape this fate, to please their husbands remains the fait accompli. Education is treated as an offense for them.
The writ of Taliban holds strong. No one dares to disobey. TV and Music is banned. Cosmetics are forbidden. Painting pictures, writing books and dancing are forbidden. Any interpretation of the holy book these people make is to be followed as writing in the stone.
A Thousand Splendid Suns will moisten your eyes, the respect for a democracy and liberalism in our country increases many folds even if it is not perfect here.
All in all, it was really splendid reading this book.
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