Going into this, I had heard many good things about Khaled Hosseini and his books. When I started reading it in school, many people stopped me and told me it was a good read. I have to say, I agree with them. Throughout reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I found myself comparing what occurred in the book to my prior knowledge of Afghanistan and its complicated history in the last half century. Seeing the war from the perspective of two women shown a light I had not imagined possible on the story. I found myself hoping leader after leader would be successful in governing Afghanistan humanely. I even found myself cheering on the Taliban for a brief amount of time.
The story of Mariam and, later Laila, was all together moving, interesting, and frustrating. I felt Mariam’s sorrow and regret after her mother’s death, I was intrigued by Laila’s home life, and I was frustrated as time passed by while Laila and Mariam remained trapped in Rasheed’s house. The flow of the story never stagnated, watching Laila and Mariam age so quickly while so little progress occurred was what frustrated me. I don’t know how anyone can live like that, spending so long playing a game of cat and mouse. Sneaking around your husband, the police, the children... it was difficult to read that bit. Mariam’s arrest and detainment was satisfying. Not because I thought she should be arrested, or imprisoned, or executed, but because she was at least free from Rasheed, and free from that fear.
I found this book to be a quick and satisfying read, and liked the switching between perspectives that began about a third of the way through the book. Hosseini managed to explain a complicated history, an emotional narrative, and story of survival in a very readable way, and in only 400 pages.
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