Enjoyable, But No Kite Runner

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Similar to The Kite Runner, Hosseini’s latest novel deals with illegitimate children in an Afghanistan reeling from turmoil and change. This time, Hosseini focuses on the female perspective by recounting the lives of Miriam, an illegitimate daughter of a wealthy cinema owner and business man, and a woman named Laila, whose parents are killed in a rocket attack. Both women, in the span of 18 years, end up married to Rasheed, a shoemaker who ends up beating them both relentlessly. The women try to escape from their husband’s rule. All of this takes place against the backdrop of the Soviet Union leaving Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban takeover.

I ended up reading this book incredibly quickly, as the prose and the pacing is well done. You really do fly through everything. But what bothered me about the book was the same thing that bothered me about Kite Runner – everything seemed like it was written by someone who wanted to provide a perfectly balanced story that had to end in a somewhat neat package. Both of Hosseini’s books, although filled with tragedy, telegraph the redemption that saves the newest generation. I can understand the desire to end on a hopeful note, but there is something too artificial about the way that Hosseini goes about executing his vision.

Overall, this is a decent read, but one that does not live up to his previous outing.

A Quote:

“In that week, Laila came to believe that of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.”