A Thousand Splendid Suns
This is my second read of the year. "A thousand splendid suns" is a beautiful book that is an amalgamation of genres from across the spectrum. It has friendship, love, tragedy, comedy, suspense, strife, cruelty and satire .It relates the life of 2 women and how their friendship and love for each other triumphs over their fears. They are 2 different people in nature, childhood, background, but bond together to live a life and death. Yet both possess a determination and strength of character that surfaces though their tolerance to suffering and revolt. At the end of it all, one feels deep sense of empathy and admiration for them.
The story is set on the background of a war stricken Afghanistan as one regime over another crushes a great nation to an abyss of poverty, destruction and the subjugation of people especially its women. Many of the events in this book, in all probability, is something we have heard of or read about in the comforts and protection of our homes. As the Journey unfolds, it makes you laugh, cry and seethe with anger. The author makes no judgment calls about how women are treated under the mirage of traditions and beliefs but his opinion is sublime and is hidden behind the satire weaved into the lines.
It's a wonder, almost unbelievable that these women who do nothing but care, love and protect their people get the most cruel treatment in forms of oppression, beatings and ostracisation. This is the grand irony that i felt and troubles me even after i shut the book since a week ago.
The book in its prose and presentation is not as eloquent as "The Kite runner", Mr Hosseini's first book but somehow, the characters in this book are so real that i am raptured to say the least.
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