If you loved the Kite Runner...

[New Mama]

You will love Khaled Hosseini’s second book ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. I read it recently and was blown away. I’m still thinking about it.

If you think we are wrong to continue our fight to oust the Taliban off the face of the earth; read this book and let me know if it changed your perspective.

[Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III]

I haven't read either, but judging it by the reviews on Amazon, it seems I need them both!!

I can't tell for sure, but it seems the book is about two women who develop a very close relationship, but I can't tell much more than that. Is it fiction? Based on his experiences? Is it like a documentary on the country or a story about the people through his eyes??

The reviews are great, but I can't really tell exactly what it's about. Help!

..........Bob

Edited to add:

I think I answered my own question. Several pages down on Amazon was this review:

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS begins with a 'harami,' Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a housekeeper and her wealthy employer. We meet Mariam as a young girl and follow her through her childhood and teenage years, as a series of circumstances turns her idealism to cynicism and ultimately lead her to an unhappy marriage with a man three times her age. It is with her new husband, Rasheed, that Mariam is introduced to a burqa for the first time. It is with Rasheed that Mariam sees her dreams dashed, her hopes for happiness destroyed.

Across the street from Mariam and Rasheed's humble home, Laila is born on the day the Soviets invade Afghanistan. By her ninth birthday, Laila, the daughter of a professor, is a bright and beautiful girl. By her fourteenth, Laila is hopelessly in love with her best friend, Tariq. But before her fifteenth birthday, Laila's life will ch-ch-change drastically.

The lives of Mariam and Laila intertwine irreversibly against a backdrop of three decades of political and social unrest in Afghanistan. Khaled Hosseini, in a triumphant return after 2003's THE KITE RUNNER, tells the tumultuous history of his country through the eyes of two unforgettable women. We see a woman's reaction to the Soviet occupation ("a good time to be a woman in Afghanistan," as one character puts it), to the strict religious control of the Mujahideen, to the cold brutality of the Taliban. Most of us are aware how patriarchal Afghanistan was until very recently; however, I personally didn't know how bad it truly was for women, how dependent they were on their husbands and other male relatives for the simplest of things. It's startling, and heartbreaking, and, in this book, sometimes agonizingly cruel.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS is a brutal and beautiful story, a tragic and an uplifting one. Hosseini is such a remarkable storyteller, so gifted at picking just the right turn of phrase that makes your breath catch in your throat at its poignancy. The prose is simple and lyrical, and the characterizations are incredible. Laila and Mariam are two of the strongest and most intriguing female characters I think I've ever read. I was startled at how strongly this book affected me, at the emotions it brought out in me. I was short of breath one minute, wiping tears from my eyes in the next, cheering for these amazing women throughout.

What this book made me feel most of all was sympathy for the innocents in Afghanistan. The Soviets occupy the country, and after years of fighting, they're overthrown by the Mujahideen. Afghanis rejoice. But then the Mujahideen become power-hungry, start in-fighting, and enforce strict rules -- punishable by death if broken. When the Taliban arrives and takes power (after more fighting), again Afghanistan rejoices...only to be thrust into a jihad, a holy war, led by cold, calculating leaders who will stop at nothing in the name of religion. What a heartbreaking history -- how horrible it must have been to live through.

But this isn't a depressing story, not by any means. There is brightness in the lives of these women, a light that refuses to go out. This novel is an ode to a country that refused to let a series of oppressive regimes steal its soul. It is a story of sacrifice, of strength, of family, of resiliency, and of love most of all. It is a story that will inspire you, open your eyes to a perspective generally ignored by a large part of the world. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS is a beautiful, beautiful book, the kind you wish would go on forever. I will not soon forget those women, that suffering, that beauty...or this story.

[New Mama]

I was startled at how strongly this book affected me, at the emotions it brought out in me. I was short of breath one minute, wiping tears from my eyes in the next, cheering for these amazing women throughout.

That really does sum it up. As you may remember, I read on the train to and from work, over two hours a day, in addition to other stolen minutes of my day. I was crying openly on the train. I couldn't help it.

I may be considered a hard nosed conservative by some and have been told I have a cynical outlook on life. Regardless of your politics, this book will touch the hardest of hearts and make you rethink our commitment to free these people from fanatical religious leaders.

[Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III]

I stopped by the book store and picked up a copy this afternoon. I'm lookin' forward to diving in later tonight!

.........Bob

[Christinko]

I want to read it too (right after I'm done with "The Devil in the White City")! I also heard that "Reading Lolita in Tehran" was excellent too for perspective about the Middle East.

[Chicago Jake]

christinko said:

.......I also heard that "Reading Lolita in Tehran" was excellent too for perspective about the Middle East.

Here ya go, Chris:

tnmc.proboards42.com/index.cgi?board=Books&action=display&thread=1108172697

[New Mama]

christinko said:

I want to read it too (right after I'm done with "The Devil in the White City")! I also heard that "Reading Lolita in Tehran" was excellent too for perspective about the Middle East.

I very much enjoyed the Devil in the White City, but couldn't get through Reading Lolita in Tehran. I found Lolita too gossipy, focusing on the fashion and nail color hiding under the burqa with an egomaniac teacher as the kind of narrator. It’s seldom that I don’t finish a book, but I didn’t even get half way through it. I found the writer to wordy…(is that a word?), without much meat to it.

However, I did like 'The Bookseller of Kabul', written by someone who lived it.

[Christinko]

Thanks for the heads up Anita...I won't bother then. I'm fully engrossed in the "Devil" book--gives a lot of perspective to our local history--and my family was here for the 1893 exposition and we have a huge leatherbound "memory" book from the fair--I'm going to check it out at my folk's house this weekend now that I'm more edumacated about the whole dealy-whoop.

[Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III]

I am 3/4's the way through "A Thousand Splendid Sons." My reading was interrupted by a family reunion this past weekend.

To say this is an incredibly powerful book and an insight into the evil that is Muslim extremism is, well, the truth.

Those of you who think we just don't understand "them" need to read this book.

To think someone 'round here said their child "had" to see Gore's stupid movie in order to graduate high school. This book should be required reading.

I'm stunned by what I've read so far . . . to think this could be real. I shutter to think what is ahead for the ending.

Zilla, read this book and tell me there is no evil in this World. I'll be waiting . . .

............Bob

[Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III]

Stoned to death in Iran

Jafar Kiani, from the village of Aghche Kand in Qazvin province, was buried up to his waist, after which the crowd hurled stones at him until he was dead.

No this isn’t a scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

It happened. Today. In Iran. Under the regime’s Islamic law.

The woman with whom Kiani (may he rest in peace) supposedly committed adultery is also waiting to be stoned to death.

It will be even more horrific for her. Under the Islamic punishment of stoning, a male victim is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, whereas a female is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried.

And the Iranian regime still has its defenders in the West.

Link
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And to think so many here who support Iran went ape shit 'cuz some Americans had the audacity to put a leash around an Iraqi's neck!! OH the HORROR!!

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Jafar Kiani, from the village of Aghche Kand in Qazvin province, was buried up to his waist ...

Could've been worse. If he'd been a lawyer, he would've been buried up to his head.

[Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III]

Anita, thanks for bringing this book to our attention. I finished it last night while I was in Key Largo on business. I hadn't been able to read it any for a few days and took the time alone to finish the last 50 pages or so.

A most powerful novel it was. I've never read a book that put tears in my eyes. It was truly outstanding.

........Bob