A thousand splendid suns.One sun is enough to light up the whole world and if we had a thousand of them.Khaled found the title from an old poem by Saib-e-tabrizi.
There are already synopsis and details about the storyline so I won’t get into all that. I read the book on the recommendation of other members of our Bookwormz club and we are 12 women in that group.
I would like to give a woman’s perception to the book. Women, especially Asian women can relate to both the protagonists, Mariam, married off at 15 to a much older man and then abused by him for not bearing a child and running parallelly and intertwined, the touching story of Laila and her love for the physically challenged Tariq and how she readily agrees to marry Rasheed, so that she can keep her unborn baby legitimately.
Rasheed is the typical, despotic patriarch, treats Laila so well till she reaches the hospital, but once he knows it’s a girl he refuses even to see her.A man is said to be a `MAN’and proves his virility and status only when he bears sons.
The difference in his approach to his daughter and his son is so palpable and his son too develops the characteristics of his ruthless dad almost from his infancy.Rasheed lies to Laila that Tariq is dead and she reconciles herself to that and marries him.
Laila with her meagre education from her modern thinking dad, very well understands the psyche of the men around her but still she shows a lot of spunk in going to see her daughter at the orphanage and planning the escape to Pakistan.
The episode at the border just before boarding the bus she befriends a man to go across the border as women without esc*rts are not allowed to travel.She puts implicit faith in a stranger whom she felt, looked caring and sympathetic but the same man betrays them and they are caught and packed off to their house.
The seething Rasheed vents all his anger on Laila and batters both the women till they bleed.They go about their work as if nothing has happened, its a way of life.no medical treatment or help.Resigned to their fates.but Laila stll nurtures the hope of a better life away from Rasheed and the daily battery of mental and physical abuse.
Culture takes the brunt at the hands of the Taliban, first the Baamiyaan Buddhas were blasted and art and culture destroyed.Everything aesthetic was burnt and destroyed.movies and music, paintings and literature, all done to dust.What I really liked was the influence of the movie Titanic, and how the love story touched so many war struck Afghanis.
Then when Laila is almost being throttled to death, Mariam does him to death and sacrifices her life for the happiness of Laila and the kids.Laila runs away with Tariq and starts life afresh.this is a typical feel good ending to the story.But the return back to Afghanistan is shown as a homecoming but the situation is still not calm.the americans soldiers and their atrocities are not any less than than the Taliban.
The book was a good read and especially written with so much empathy towards women by a man-Khaled Hosseinni. That is very commendable but at the end of the book I was glad that [though all these problems are faced by many women in India too] **I was born in a free country with free expression and movement!
PS**.I was away from Mouthshut but I was in touch.so I am in the running for a starwriter!:)