A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.94 You Save: $21.01 (81%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.88 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of A Thousand Splendid Suns
Book Review: Over-political
Summary: 2 Stars
The book is a overdramatic tragedy in which most characters are losing. Rasheed, the main bad guy, has more than one wife. Rasheed was a widower before he married Mariam and Laila. The two wives are polar opposite in character - Mariam is loyal while Laila is rebellious. The opposite characters attract and become friends.
Both women are foolish not to listen to their mothers, and as a result both women are like slaves under their husband. For example, if Laila, who becomes an orphan in her teens, had listened to her mother, she would not have been impregnated by Tariq and would not have to marry Rasheed. Throughout the book, Laila is hopeful even though she lives a difficult life under a burqa.
Mariam repents for the rest of her life because of one mistake she makes. Mariam's stepmothers are straight out of Cinderella. Mariam respects and regards Rasheed until she found porno magazines in his room. As we go on in this book, Mariam has lost so much hope that she becomes almost unhuman. (One of the answers to the questions at the back of the book is Mariam signs her name for her wedding and for the sentence given to her by the Taliban judges towards the end.)
Like the movie Titanic, which is mentioned in the book, the book has a few characters who are connected to each other and who are friends with each other (such as Jack and Rose, or Mariam and Laila) set against the backdrop of a disaster, such as the ship sinking or war in Afghanistan which has militiamen fighting. The book shows that Afghanistan is not a good place for even infant girls, such as Laila's daughter Aziza. The best part of the book is Aziza and her relationship with Mariam. The way the author describes Aziza's laughs and smiles is very good.
There are some modern women in Afghanistan before militiamen started fighting each other. Islam in Herat plays a more important role the Islam in Kabul. There are racial and ethnic differences in Afghanistan, a poor country, just as in USA, the richest country in the world. The West and Soviet Union are not described much in the book, except when Bush declares war against Taliban. Hosseini's American citizenship could mean he has a condescending relationship towards Afghanistan. The name of the title appears in a poem which describes one moon and a thousand splendid suns.
Book Review: Spendid is spendid
Summary: 5 Stars
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better than "The Kite Runner" here comes "A Thousand Splendid Suns." I can't get enough of this genius, Hosseini. I wait with bated breath for his next masterpiece.Book Review: Heart-wrenchingly beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
Judging from the number of reviews, I must be the last person on the planet to read this book. If you listened to the audiobook as I did, just a friendly warning: don't listen to it in public--because I defy you not to bawl like a baby at parts of this book, especially the last third.
"Suns" seemed to me like an allegorical tale. Hosseini has written a very observant, photographic picture of life in Afghanistan as seen through the eyes of Maryam, Laila and to some extent Rasheed and Tariq. This is definitely a book told through the women. It is about how each of their lives either expands and painfully, brutally and violently contracts at the whim of the men in their lives, just as Afghanistan is contracting and suffocating at the hands of the Russians, warlords and then the Taliban.
Hosseini does not spare the reader the pain and despair of Maryam's life, beginning with her betrayal by her father, through her daily life with the "cheerful cruelty" and violence of Rasheed, and Laila's unwelcome entry into it. He describes with incredible realism how Laila's life literally explodes around her.
I haven't read The Kite Runner, but after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I cannot wait.
Book Review: Terrific
Summary: 5 Stars
While I have to be honest and say that I didn't enjoy this novel *quite* as much as The Kite Runner, I still think it was a terrific book! Again I enjoyed being taken on a journey in Afghanistan, a place that I don't know much of anything about. It delves into a topic that I feel also many of us do not know about or understand and that's the life of a woman and her role in the family in that country.
To that point, I read on as a country is being torn apart, as friends and family are torn from each other...as the characters face obstacles and heartaches and make heartwrenching decisions that I can barely comprehend having to make. This book makes the plight of Afghanistan and their people a little more real and close to home.
I was intrigued, and had a hard time putting the book down. Hosseini is truly a talented author. One that I am so glad to have come across, thanks to the NY Times Best Sellers list!! With so many books out there it's hard to find an original novel, and this one satisfies that need. I look forward to his future works.
Book Review: A thousand splended suns
Summary: 4 Stars
Wow, I didn't think this book would live up to it's predecessor - The Kite Runner ---- and it DID! Story setting is still the same, but the narrator is a girl. I can't believe I waited this long to buy it and read it!