Like diamonds and roses hidden under bomb rubble, this novel is a story of fierce beauty and courage buried under the plane of the cruel and capricious life enforced upon two Afghani women. Overwhelming, beautiful, deep, rich, sad, frightening, and infuriating.
There’s a plentiful I want to say about this piece of art and so I cry your pardon if this review is a bit of a rambler. You should definitely read this book. I’ll presumably repeat this again, but I want to lock on and don’t want to forget to say it. Buy the book and read it.
Synopsis
The story revolves around two characters, Mariam and Laila, who were born 20 years apart, but their lives are connected through the series of events in this novel. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy merchant named Jalil who has 3 wives and 9 “legitimate” children. Her mother, Nana, was a servant in Jalil’s house who was having an affair with Jalil, resulting in Mariam.
The additional main character is Laila who lives in the same area as Mariam. Laila’s story starts with her close friendship with a boy called Tariq, who loses his leg to a Soviet land mine when he was 5 years old. As years pass by, with Kabul under constant rocket attacks, Laila’s family decides to leave the city. During this emotional farewell, Laila and Tariq make love. Later, as her family was ready to depart for Kabul, a rocket kills Laila’s parents and Laila is severely injured in this incident.
I don’t want to spoil the plot of this book by giving away too many details, so let me just conclude through a series of most tragic events, Mariam and Laila both end up married to a serious scumbag called Rasheed. I want to clarify the last remark because it goes to the most chilling aspect of the novel for me. One of the novel’s primary essence is the bright light that the author shines in the nasty way that women are treated in Asian countries like Afghanistan.
Disclaimer
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini – an Afghan American novelist, is one heart-breaking piece of work, it’s a knot between war, pain, loss, courage, hope & love. A hopeful survival.
It is a tale of two generations of characters escorted jarringly together by the disastrous sweep of war, where confidential lives, the struggle to survive, raise a family, find cheerfulness is entangled from the history playing out around them. Moreover, I’ve perceived so much about this book so far, I more or less didn't want to read it at all.
You may know when you read a book or see a film that has great reviews and you finish up feeling disappointed because it didn't live up to the hype. My involvement in reading this book was completely the opposite. I loved it. I didn't feel the message of the book was one of brutality or depression, but of hope and the toughness of the human spirit.
Verdict
Wars make you shed tears achingly yet what matters is the unlabelled love in her hearts that makes us human. Pious love for those suffering, for those leading ruined lives & for the unfortunate & fortunate, both. And grief (as for Mariam who led a life in poverty of love) who doesn’t come upon you at a particular age it can visit while you’re smiling those innocent childhood smiles, wiping off tears of contusion you got while playing, having those tasty snacks after being home and dreaming off a blooming life.
And love for hope, compels you to live even more when you don’t feel like it, it helps you to survive in the hardest, it helps you to see victory through wars. And for Laila and Mariam it was the love that tied knots of their heart to survive against the darkened circumstances of their lives. This book will make you sadly grateful, it will make you sigh.
The Bottom Line
Rasheed is an ignorant, mean-spirited, pretty little pile of ass who will make even the most serene and passive reader feel like loading the .45 with hollow points and performing a gunpowder enema on his story. Moreover, Mariam and Laila find themselves together, the story deepens as these two women slowly start living with each other and later both of them depend upon each other as they face almost the same daily challenges, most of the time from their abusive husband.
Written By - Ifrah Amin
Edited By - Pavas Shrigyan
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