A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

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Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns Author: Khaled Hosseini Genre: Cultural Rating: 9/10 # pages: 318 Date read: June, 2008

Summary: A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years--from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding--that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives--the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness--are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Review: Written by the author of Kite Runner but leagues better. I was very disappointed by KR and therefore reluctant to start A Thousand Splendid Suns, but quickly realized it was far superior. As always I am shocked and appalled to read about how the Taliban treated women. I hope they will never (as Hosseini predicted) return to power in that manner.

Politics aside, the book is well-written and captivating. One can't help but feel sympathetic with the two main characters and weep for them in their times of trial. A much better book than I'd expected.

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Comments

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

I will never, ever forget an interview I read in Marie Claire when George W. Bush was running for President the first time. The interviewer asked him his opinion on the Taliban, and no joke, he replied, "I don't watch HBO." He thought it was a TV show. She explained that it was a regime in Afghanistan that systematically oppresses women, and he was like, "Oh."

He sure learned about them fast on September 11. I remember being dumbfounded, though, when he was all, "We have to invade Afghanistan because the Taliban is our biggest enemy," and all I could think about was, "You'd never even heard of them this time last year. A reporter for a fashion magazine had to tell you who they are."

[bogormen.livejournal.com]

And yet people thought he was the best candidate. Not once, but TWICE!

I will never understand that.