A Thousand Splendid Suns Book Review— by Sarah Shaibu
Reading the final chapter in A Thousand Splendid Suns caused me to have almost a Deja vu effect. The feeling of familiarity and love shared through Tariq and Laila’s new lives pays homage to Mariam and her idolization of her father Jahlil.
The author, Khaled Hosseini, does not downplay the brutality and wickedness of a troubling era in Afghan history, rather; he tells it how it is. Hosseini’s writing is theatrical and has a sense of realness to it that makes the characters come to life. He made us feel the conversations like we were there.
The last quarter or so of the story was so powerful and well written to me, and made me fall in love with these characters and their incredible strength and the relationships between them, rather than just feeling awful and nervous about what more they might have to go through. It forces you to realize that you just have to keep getting through hard times in order to appreciate the love and the good that’s formed afterward.
Hosseini does have a hard time finding a balance of emotions between his characters, with characters like Rasheed being portrayed as evil with no other depth of emotions and not enough sufficient backstory to be unrelentingly evil. The other male characters portrayed as pathetically weak.
The historical background of the novel, the Soviet invasion, the mujahedeen, the tribal tensions were not always well integrated into the overall storyline and left some chapters feeling more like a history lesson than a complex story of life and endurance. Yet, Hosseini carried me along by cleverly wielding the power of emotion through the relationship between Mariam and Laila. wonderful, brave, intelligent and resolute women, their optimistic dreams, aspirations, boundless love… yet dehumanized, merciless, and continually suffering degradation and inhumane treatment.
I would recommend this story to anyone searching for enlightenment, with the passion for human resilience and anyone who wants to read an outstanding tale of what it takes to survive against all odds.
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