Cambridge Meetup- A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Next, we're discussing, A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Excerpt from: http://contemporaryli...

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a must read for those who wish to understand the modern history (1964 - 2003) of Afghanistan, which is told eloquently through the eyes of Laila and Mariam.

Life is an unending search for love, family, home, acceptance, a healthy society, and a promising future. You can go home again, even if "home" has evolved and been transformed. As home is transformed one adapts and maintains what one can of tradition. The dying words of Laila's father, killed by a bomb while in the seeming safety of their home, quote lines from a 17th Century poem by Saib-e-Tabrizi in praise of Kabul: "One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."

A Thousand Splendid Suns is not so clearly autobiographical as The Kite Runner; however, one cannot help but imagine that these two remarkable women are drawn from life, that their revealed lives reflect the lives of thousands of Afghani women who have endured despite the odds. Hosseini has said, "I would like readers to walk away with a sense of empathy for Afghans, and more specifically for Afghan women, on whom the effects of war and extremism have been devastating." Both novels, he says, were love stories. Whereas The Kite Runner featured fraternal love, A Thousand Splendid Suns shows how "love manifests itself in even more various shapes, be it romantic love, . . . or love for family, home, country, God. I think. . . it is ultimately love that draws characters out of their isolation, that gives them the strength to transcend their own limitations, to expose their vulnerabilities, and to perform devastating acts of self-sacrifice."
The stories of Mariam and Laila begin independent of one another even as they live a few doors apart in Kabul. When a bomb falls on Laila's home, killing her parents, she is taken in by Mariam and her husband Rasheed, one of the most evil incarnate characters in the modern novel. Mariam was married to him when she was fifteen. Laila is nearly the same age and Rasheed is in lust toward her, pushing aside Mariam. It is difficult to accept that some of what Westerners perceive as "evil" is Rasheed acting consistently in accordance with centuries old Afghani tradition.

The descriptions of the ensuing violence (some physical, but most often mental) visited upon Laila and Mariam as individuals and the people of Afghanistan are presented in a straightforward manner and are all the more horrific for the nearly clinical depiction. In the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal, the Mujahideen were bad, but peaceful in comparison with the rise of the Taliban who did all they could to kill the centuries old culture of Afghanistan. The systematic destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan is a case in point as the Taliban instituted draconian religious laws. The attitude of the Taliban toward women, as Mariam says, "Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always."