A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

For the August book read, I entered the world of two Afghan women:  Mariam and Laila, in the lead up to and then in their marriages to Rasheed, a complete wanker, who only evolves into such a disgusting character as the story rolls on. It doesn't really matter where in the world us women meek out our living, we still relate to basic human experiences like blind, stubborn love of family, pregnancy, birth... for the most part, women can relate to our womanly experiences regardless if we are Afghani, American, Kiwi, Aussie, Chinese, South African, and so on. So I was able to immerse myself in the stories of these two women and thoroughly appreciate their experiences; I cried, pined, mourned, and celebrated alongside them.

Hosseini's undeniably thorough understanding of Afghani history from the Soviet rule through to the overturn of the Taliban brought this part of the world intimately close, so that I was able to finally piece together why there was Western interest in bringing down the Taliban. And yet, it didn't feel like a history lesson. As I turned the pages of this novel, it smoothly transitioned from one political situation to another, from Miriam's life in Herat to Kabul, to Laila's tragic loss of family and friends, to her subsequent marriage as second wife to Rasheed. And I was absorbing the real history of Afghanistan whilst rea

Hosseini takes us on a cultural showcase of traditional food, roles, entertainment and literature. My experience of Afghan has pretty much been news coverage of the 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan showing desert, soldiers, tanks, and guns. After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I feel like I have a much better understanding of what a woman might be preparing for dinner, how she might welcome the feel of the burqa as she goes out, anonymous, her shy nature protected behind the shroud. I can giggle at the fanatic Titanic mania that took over Kabul in the same way the Wiggles have taken over for toddlers of the Western nations...

I can't imagine welcoming the silence and privacy of the burqa as Miriam did...these don't look very practical at all. I couldn't believe what I was reading when the doctor preparing to perform Laila's caesarean, whipped off her burqa, posted a guard nurse at the door, and informed Miriam that the Taliban expects women to perform surgery in burqas! Imagine that!

In many ways I made connections with these two ladies and in that, I feel the author, as a man, did a splendid job weaving this story; yet my connections were always interpreted through my Western frame of reference and so I was shocked in all the right places, appalled in others...I just wonder how an Afghan woman would take this story? Miriam was so accepting of her lot in life, is this usual of women in Afghanistan. Laila had a bit of a fight in her, but she still succumbed at the critical points. or was this in fact, still a man's interpretation that all women submit under the right circumstances?