Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

We interrupt this travel/ESL teaching blog for another book review.

Last year, I finally got around to reading The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, after it was recommended to me by several people. I didn't know that I could really get into a book about Afghanistan, though. It didn't really seem to be within my scope of reading tastes, but after the first few chapters, I couldn't put it down. A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Hosseini, was the same way. I didn't want to stop reading and go to class. This one may be even better than The Kite Runner.

It's also unbelievably heartbreaking. While The Kite Runner is about a friendship between two young boys, Suns is about the women of Afghanistan. The first, Miriam, is sent to marry a man she's never met by her illegitimate father at the age of 15. Laila is forced to become his second wife after her family is killed by the constant violence in Kabul. The novel chronicles the recent history of Afghanistan, from Soviet occupation in the 80's, to the Afghanis joy at the Taliban coming in to save them in the 90's. I was amazed at the American's determination to oust the Soviets (because nothing can be worse than communism, right?) and their ability to ignore what happened afterward (and paying the ultimate price for that ignorance a decade later).

At times, I had to put the book down out of shock and thank my lucky stars I was born where I was. According to the Taliban, women could not leave the house without being completely covered and with a man, couldn't have a job, could only use the worst hospitals, and could be beaten for no reason. Any domestic violence was considered a "private, family matter." And no one, man or woman, could laugh, dance, or sing.

Despite all that, it really is a beautiful book. You should pick it up.