Word Attack!!

A Thousand Splendid Suns

April 1, 2008 on 5:29 pm | In Book Reviews |

August 6th, 2007

If the saying goes that one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, then one shouldn’t judge an author with his first book in mind, either. Stories like the Kite Runner are written only once in a life time I suppose. But stories like A Thousand Splendid Suns are still stories that should be told. Even if they may not have the lyrical prose of Kite Runner which often had my throat choked up, A Thousand Splendid Suns is still a good read.

It is the story of Mariam and Laila, two women of different generations, both only vaguely aware of the other’s existence, as it often happens in life. I’m sure all of us have neighbours whom we meet on the road, and just say ‘hello’. We go our way and briefly wonder what their lives are like. But as A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel in which the political undertones, the historic events of Afghanistan play a major role in determining the course of the protagonists’ lives, we see how the two different lives meld into a common household, where survival is the first instinct. Friendship, companionship and love only come later.

Mariam is married to Rasheed, the husband from hell. However, I do presume that a majority of husbands are like Rasheed, and lives of women like Mariam are pure hell because of them…still, one cannot discount the good men too, like Tariq, or Laila’s father in this book.

The story is very simple, and once again, inevitably I revert to a comparison with The Kite Runner, because the underlying complexities in Kite Runner are missing here. The father-son relationship, the love for Kabul, they are all here, but with a different perspective and feel, which somehow doesn’t ring true. Is it because the protagonists are women? And Khalid Hosseini’s insights into a woman’s mind and life seem superficial, despite a sincere attempt. There were places where I found both heroines to resemble the cardboard heroines in a Sidney Sheldon novel and thats where I have my biggest grouse with this book.

Despite all this, the story of Afghanistan and its people is a deeply disturbing and moving story. I feel sympathy for the Afghanis, who have been oppressed by some faction or the other, throughout history. When the Soviets overthrew the monarchy, people hailed them, thinking they would be helped, their lives would become better. No. That didnt happen. When the Mujahideen overthrew the Soviets, people hailed them, but again, no. When the Taliban overthrew the Mujahideen, once again people waved flags and banners proclaiming ‘Taliban Zindabad’ but we all know what the Taliban did right?

If you have to read this book, read it to know the plight of women in Afghanistan, of how they cannot even deliver a baby in a hospital, unless its a hospital meant for women, where doctors have to wear burkhas in the OT and women agree for Cesarians without anesthesia.

The bond between Mariam and Laila and how they’re lives emerge out of the dust, after being trodded upon by Rasheed is good, but not unique or surprising. But there are moments in the novel which are very evocative, especially, the title of the book, which is part of a Farsi poem, an ode to Kabul. Let me quote it here :

‘One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls’

I remember reading a review of this book when it came out. Only one sentence remains in my head :’A Thousand Splendid Suns is pulp fiction at its best’. And thats what it is. Good pulp fiction, but pulp fiction nevertheless.