People like happy endings and enjoy the feel good factor of an uplifting story where good triumphs over evil and everyone lives happily ever after. So when A Thousand Splendid Suns was on The New York Times Best Seller list I thought, obviously, that it would be a good holiday read.
Spoiler alert - if you haven't read it!
Our main character is introduced, Mariam. The poor child of a woman who was never married and whose father, out of guilt, visits her occasionally. Otherwise she was bored to tears. Then Mariam's mother commits suicide. Not the best start and no happiness so far! So the guilty but cowardly father has her married off at an alarmingly early age to a fat old widower who treats her like a dog, is disappointed she keeps on miscarrying the son he craves for, and gives her more and more severe beatings as the years of their miserable marriage tick over. Not a laugh a minute so far is it?
In the meantime, if this wasn't enough punishment and heartache for a person to stand, the setting is Kabul during every invasion, political unrest and war that Afghanistan has had to withstand over the last forty years and just when there is a glimmer of hope for the civilian population, when the Russians withdraw, the dreaded Taliban move in bringing in such a strict Islamic regime that the population, and more so the woman, are so oppressed they are paralyzed by restrictions.
Then there is a younger woman, Laila. She is described as a much more vibrant woman, intelligent, loved by her family (well her father anyway - can't have it all ways) and in love - but then her parents are blown to pieces by a stray bomb which hits their house just when they were packing up and moving away from Kabul so she can join the love of her life in Pakistan. Oh yes did I mention her brothers were killed in the war. Still no laughs but she survives and is nursed back to health by the miserable Mariam and her brute of a husband who, wouldn't you know it, takes Laila as his second wife.
Laila happens to be already pregnant by the hero, Tariq, but she is told he died on his way out of Kabul to Pakistan so she agrees to be number two wife and passes off the subsequent baby girl as her husband's. Life ticks over for the brute, the two wives who do, eventually, become friends and the daughter. There is no domestic hharmony, the husband beats them all violently, they are poor, there is a drought and the husband's shop is burnt down so he has no work. The women try to run away - they fail get caught and have to come back. More beatings. They are so poor they have to put the daughter in an orphanage so she will at least have food every day. This has an untold physical affect on the child who screams her heart out when left and develops a stutter because of the horrible experience. Still not many laughs.
In a fit of peak Rasheed, the wife beating husband almost kills Laila during one of the beatings so Mariam whacks him in the forehead with the edge of shuffle and kills him dead. Hooray we all cheer. We all want this to be the end when the women run away with the children. But wouldn't you know it Mariam won't run, is charged and found guilty of murder where the Taliban judge is not interested in the fact that he had his hands around Laila's throat at the time. Mariam is sentenced to death and is publicly executed in the stadium in Kabul. Not so much as a titter by this time...
Eventually we find out that our hero, Tariq, the young boyfriend of Laila is not dead after all. He returns to take Laila away together with his daughter and treats the son of the brutish husband as his own. An all round good guy even though he's just got one leg (can't have everything in this story).
There is a bit of an uplifting ending in that Laila is married to the man she loves and they are a strong family unit. At the end, incomprehensibly, she longs to go back to Kabul because that is where she belongs...
I was utterly exhausted by the experience of reading this sad sad book. Come on Khaled write something funny next time!
I also read this book on holiday. But I enjoyed it and found it astonishing that a man could write so powerfully from a woman's point of view. Fantastic. It took over my waking moments; I couldn't wait for the next time I could read more. Why do we always have to have happy endings? Life isn't like that! (Especially for women in Afghanistan) Do we have to protect ourselves and only read happy books? I didn't enjoy it any less for the bleakness of the story (there were positive elements too!) Please Khaled - don't listen to them! Let them read Disney if they want happy endings....
Posted by: Lynne | August 15, 2009 at 05:41 PM
I do think he is a good writer but it was so full of bad luck that I could hardly bare it.
Posted by: Lesley | August 15, 2009 at 06:05 AM
I too have read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and it is such an amazing book and at times I need to remind myself that it's written by a man. Khaled brings all of his characters to life and it is really wonderful to get a rare insight into the culture of Afghanistan. Your review is very good and I do agree with you that the next novel from Khaled could do with a little cheer and a happy ending!
Posted by: Julie | August 15, 2009 at 05:05 AM