A Thousand Splendid Suns | Khaled Hosseini | Excellent character development

A Thousand Splendid Suns | Khaled Hosseini | compelling

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A Thousand Splendi...

	A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini Riverhead, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 1242 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today. Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival. A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

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Excellent character development

Appreciated the book as much as, if not more than, The Kite Runner. What was most impressive is how he managed to get into the heart, soul, mind of the women, especially Miriam when she had the miscarriage. I've had several miscarriages myself, years ago now, and because he so totally captured the essence of that experience, it brought my own memories back with great clarity. He truly conveyed *from the mother's perspective* that experience and took the reader there (with Miriam). It's not easy to do that with one's *own* experience, much less try to write as a male from a female perspective ... well done, sir!

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compelling

Beautifully written with restraint and understated power. This book moved me by its content - the story of two women living through times of great upheaval in Afghanistan who struggle to retain their dignity while at the mercy of a world controlled by men - and by the language used. Hosseini transmits to us the utter dependance of the women on the whims of the men in their lives be it father, husband or the authorities, and the degradations they suffer at their hands, without resorting to descriptions of gratuitous violence. The very matter-of-factness of his descriptions makes them more effective and moving. I must confess that I wept with rage and despair as I read some of the passages. As a student I visited Afghanistan in 1970 and Hosseini's descriptions brought it all back to me; the heat, the dust, the mountains and the endless plains with the huge sky; the bustling markets and the houses with the blind walls which in this story conceal lives of at times unbearable sadness. The book ends on a cautiously optimistic note as the characters work to build a new and better world in their small sphere of influence. A book to be recommended.

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Must Read!

I have to admit that I was a little leary to read this book. I fell in love with, "The Kite Runner" and was nervous that this wouldn't be as good and I would be disappointed and would never want to read anything that Hosseini ever wrote again. BUT-three days after borrowing this one from a friend, I am writing this review and telling all of you out there that if you loved, "The Kite Runner" you will love this one as well!

Hosseini has a way with words that grabs readers and takes them into the story. I felt that I was there with the charcters living their lives with them. Honestly I could go on and on about this book and tell all of you out there every little detail, but I don't want this to be one big, giant spoiler, so that being said...read it. You won't be able to put it down. It was amazing!

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An improvement on 'Kite Runner'

The story was a lot more complex than 'Kite Runner'. The characters were also richer and the description of Afghanistan before and after the war was fascinating. Once Mariam got married to Rashid, the story became a bit claustrophobic. Most of the action took place in the main characters' house, and Hosseini made sure to evoke the sense of hopelessness and dullness that these women's lives consisted of. The brutality and mercilessness of Rashid depressed and wore on me after a while, but the book lost some steam after his departure. The ending was definitely more satisfying than 'Kite Runner'.

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