Review | A Thousand Splendid Suns
- Jun 28, 2016
- 2 min read
A Heart-Wrenching Love Story
One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls...
The namesake of this book is a 17th century poem about the city of Kabul in Afghanistan, but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Kabul and the wars that ravage the country are meant to be symbolic of the quiet strength and hidden beauty of the millions of women who endure oppression in Afghanistan. This wasn't an easy book to read. It's raw from beginning to end, full of violent abuse, betrayals, death, and regret. But it's also marked by love and hope, the only things that offer sanctuary to the heroines of this book.
The story is told from the points of view of Mariam and Laila, two women whose upbringings were largely at odds with each other. Mariam was an unwanted, unloved child, whose mother committed suicide and her father sold her to a man 20 years her senior at the age of 15. In her marriage, she suffers multiple miscarriages, is isolated from society, and abused sexually, physically and psychologically on a daily basis by her husband. Laila is somewhat the only child in a progressive Afghan family who values education and female empowerment. She is both well-balanced and sheltered by her friends, family, and childhood lover. However, Hosseini flawlessly ties into the story tidbits of Afghanistan history (without ever making it boring) and with the Taliban hostile takeover, Laila's world is literally blown apart. She loses everyone and falls into the hands of Rasheed, Mariam's husband. Laila has no choice but to marry him for survival, and with that, she is forced into adulthood just as Mariam had been, and the two opposite lives are harshly thrusted together by fate. As life becomes increasingly harder to endure, they find that love makes life worth living and it's ultimately love that saves them from their isolation and gives them courage.
After completing this book, I can't describe how grateful I am to be born in a society that values women, freedom, and human rights! Although I spent half the book mad at Mariam for not fighting back, I agree with the author that there is real beauty in someone who has been beaten down repeatedly but endures and loves, similar to the city of Kabul. And I think it was interesting that although Hosseini could have happily ended the story in Murree with Laila and Tariq safely reunited, he had to take his characters back to Kabul to show that even a war-wrecked city was worth saving and rebuilding. I loved how Hosseini was able to make readers all over the world gain an elementary understanding of the situation in Afghanistan, from the many different ethnic groups that make up the diverse cultures and views, to the harsh Soviet/Taliban history. This is definitely an eye-opening book, and one that will stay with me for a long time!
-Jane
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