A Thousand Splendid Suns
I really enjoyed The Kite Runner, so I was eager to get my hands on A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
My opinion: it’s a good book, but not as good as The Kite Runner. Let me throw some thoughts out at you, but per my norm, this won’t be a standard review. You can find a gajillion of those already.
On a strange note, I think that some people will find this book better than The Kite Runner, not because the writing is any better, but simply because TKR had a pretty vulgar, vile event that initiated a change in the characters’ behavior. If you’re one of those people and know what I’m talking about, give this book a try…you may like it more than his others.
The prose is really good, not great. And the themes are good, not great. It kept my attention, it stirred my emotions, and I enjoyed it.
The story is set in Afghanistan, which is where his other two novels take place. While I have taken pleasure in discovering some of those small details of Afghan life that I would otherwise never have known about, I also would like to see him branch out a little bit, try a new locale. Oh, well, he has time for that later…I’d say for now he has cornered the market on what he’s got going.
Some people complain if a book is too happy, that it isn’t realistic. You won’t have that problem here. We’ve got plenty of abuse and misfortunes and injustice to go around. Of course, if you are the opposite end of the spectrum of readers, and want a perfect and happy ending, well, I don’t want to give it away…read it and make your own decisions.
The characters are solidly developed, some that you love, and some you will hate.
I’ll tell you what shocked me and it’s not even directly related to Khaled Hosseini’s writing. It’s that 4,000 of his 400,000 reviews on Goodreads are 1-star reviews. What? Really? I don’t see how that’s possible. Are you telling me there were no redeeming qualities whatsoever in the novel? Ludicrous and absurd. It may not be the superstar quality of the first book, but still good.
It’s a good thing I don’t blindly listen to the people who leave 1-star reviews, or I would miss out on a lot of good books! I know that reviewers aren’t professionals. I’m not; most people aren’t. All I mean by that is that people are emotionally driven and they aren’t trained to write reviews. One bad joke, or not fitting the narrow mold of one’s tastes, or writing in first person, or not containing an element of romance, or having a couple that is “too in love,” or a thousand other silly things can make a reviewer drop a 1-star rating. Really, really take the bad reviews with a grain of salt.
But, I digress…right?
Hosseini did a fine job with A Thousand Splendid Suns. He’s well on his way to establishing himself as an author that reliably enchants us with beautiful tales and rich characters. I look forward to his next novel.
