July 19th, 2010 | Author: admin
Reading Sun
|
|
Elizabeth Jacobsen and Moses relaxing on the forecastle head Photo Mugs Moses lies on his front reading a book while Elizabeth has her eyes closed enjoying the sun on the forecastle head of the Parma. When commenting about the appearance of two girls on the ship, the 14 year old Moses philosophically remarked that at least two girls were better than one, coz zen zey fights each ozer!. But the two girls, both of them signed on as apprentices, did not fight each ozer or... |
 |
US $3.50
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
I read A Thousand Splendid Suns having just finished Kite Runner. I would like the opportunity to live another life time (who does not?) if only to have the opportunity to reverse the order of this experience. Tat suspect had read A Thousand Splendid Suns first then none of the criticisms raised about the book, even could have imagined, much less express. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a wonderful book, a compelling and heartbreaking story of two women, Mariam and Laila, who share a husband throughout the years of Afghanistan's tragedy and turmoil. The fact that Khaled Hosseini can sustain expression narrative excitement and interest across two novels with ostensibly similar themes in the same area is a testament both to his supreme skill and the depth of despair the country.
If The Kite Runner tells the story of two childhood friends of maturity, separation and reunion, A Thousand Splendid Suns has two women who are forced together by appointment. As in Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini presents ethnic and social class as given in history. Of Similarly, Afghanistan's turbulent thirty years from mid-1970 is more than a backdrop: it is the very substance of the idea, finally revealed the meat on the bones of history, the driving force of circumstances that creates the inevitability of the fate of the characters.
And that's why I like to read both books again in a different order, because all too often in A Thousand Splendid Suns I felt I had been there before. The backdrop was too for a close-in parts to the point where I felt Mariam and Laila became puppets of the details and demands.
That, I suppose, also may be part of the tip. Whereas The Kite Runner focused on the male experience, A Thousand Splendid Suns focuses on women and, given what happened in Afghanistan during the last decades, it may be that the sense of submission to the developments is the essence of the experience of these women. Therefore, it is almost certain that they were not, themselves, protagonists. They were made to you.
Mariam and Laila differ in age, ethnicity, social class and birthright. Both, for different reasons, end up unhappily married to the same man, Rasheed, older than both combined, brutal, bigoted and sadistic. Rashid is thus a symbol for the traditional male role without declaring himself as such. In Western terms, we can read this "tradition" as misogyny, however, and this is where I find the weakness of the book. In my opinion - for what it is worth it, and not so much that - A Thousand Splendid Suns would have been even more novel Rashid was chosen as a more liberal figure and had also suffered as a result of his own conflict with the demands of changing times. But Khaled Hosseini made A Thousand Splendid Suns of the stories of women and a more complex role her husband might have deflected attention from them.
The two women who had very different experiences of youth, and show very different capacities to relate to others and even to life itself. But they have much in common the need to act together, need to form a relationship, unless an alliance, rather than known. Pragmatism might have been easier, but two women develop a real relationship, a relationship that shares the pain, disappointment and unfulfilled dreams of civil confinement. It is the decision of the tragedy abundance and last of its kind.
And then there was the eventual similarity between Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns that prompted me to take my eye off the ball, lose a little interest in history at the midpoint. But if this is a criticism, then it is a very small one. As I suggested at the beginning, if he had read the two books the opposite direction, probably has stabilized my criticism differently. But he also said a review of Kite Runner that I do not criticize the book for lack explicit position in politics, I think A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, should have said more about the status and role of women. Mariam and Laila live a tragedy, but also offered as icons for something bigger, which is the position of women in society in general. A Thousand splendid suns I wanted the author to offer explicit comments on the situation of his characters, at least some general comment, even a dose of controversy to the tag simply absurd. Moreover, as I said before, could have done Rasheed, the aging of her husband, a little more complex, a little more intimate with To provide a source of social attitudes without having to justify them.
But these are all minor points. A Thousand Splendid Suns is by right itself, another crowning achievement by Khaled Hosseini, and a reminder to us all that the ideology imposed blindly can be a blunt and dangerous instrument.
About the Author
Philip Spires
Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya
http://www.philipspires.co.uk
Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest’s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.
Posted in 
Tags: