Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

This is my book club's pick for the month, by the author of The Kite Runner another book club pick that everyone in my group enjoyed. I didn't think I would enjoy this book--and perhaps enjoy isn't the best word since the story is essentially an ongoing tragedy about the volitile situation in Afghanistan over the past thirty years. Yet, I was completely drawn in by the strength of the women and their unlikely friendship as well as the shocking description of ordinary life for women under the warlords and Taliban. Though you hear about it and see news stories, reading about burkas (full coverings with a mesh screen that women must wear outside the home) and the harsh restrictions on literally every aspect of a female's life actually felt more "real" in this novel. Perhaps because reading a news story you only see a piece of a life but you get to know these fictional characters from birth to death and how their life is controlled by a culture they are not permitted to participate in.

Mariam, a child born from an a affair between a wealthy man and his servant is given to a rough, rude, traditional Afghani shoemaker as his wife after her mother commits suicide. When Mariam is unable to provide the son he craves, a second wife is brought into the household. Again, this is a forced marriage. Eventually, the two wives realize that their salvation can only be found in each other.

Interestingly, the characters with the least depth in this novel are the men. Rasheed, the husband, in particular has no redeeming qualities. Even his love for his son seems to stem from his desire for a re-creation of himself. Jalil, Mariam's wealthy father is weak and his wealth allows him to indulge in that weakness. Tarik, Laila's love since childhood, is so good, so likeable, that even he doesn't really show much dimension. But this doesn't bother me. If anything it shocks me since the author, Khaled Hosseini, is a man who was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and moved to the United States in 1980. And his previous novel, The Kite Runner is about a young man. It is a rare talent to be able to write convincingly from both a male and a female point of view. And in this book, the characters are the women. That's who we need to see and feel.