A Thousand Splendid Suns in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Mar 17, 2008 Beth Given rated it it was ok

Seems that this book and its predecessor, The Kite Runner, has been getting a lot of buzz on the Internet lately — but based on the reviews, I’d shied away from reading either. Most people seemed to agree that these stories of Afghan civil war were “hard” to read — not because of lengthy, erudite descriptions (quite to the contrary, actually; Splendid Suns, at least, was basically well-written with plenty of dialogue to drive the reader through the storyline) but because of the topic. I suspecte Seems that this book and its predecessor, The Kite Runner, has been getting a lot of buzz on the Internet lately — but based on the reviews, I’d shied away from reading either. Most people seemed to agree that these stories of Afghan civil war were “hard” to read — not because of lengthy, erudite descriptions (quite to the contrary, actually; Splendid Suns, at least, was basically well-written with plenty of dialogue to drive the reader through the storyline) but because of the topic. I suspected that this book was probably filled with graphic descriptions of gore and violence I wouldn’t care to read about.

But when my book club chose this for its pick this go-around, I decided to give it a try; after all, the thing I love best about book club is trying out genres I wouldn’t read otherwise. It didn’t take long to see that the plot would be a series of seemingly endless tragedies, just as I’d suspected. There was a disturbing amount of violence, both on a grand scale through war (which was terrible enough) but also on a domestic, personal level. Worse, I found little hope in this book; even its ending seemed, to me, a case of “too little too late.” If asked to describe the book as a whole, I’d say it was dismal and depressing — and just too graphic for my taste (I found myself skipping entire paragraphs multiple times).

And yet there were a few redeeming qualities about this book that keep me from assigning it the dreaded single star on Goodreads (which, really, shouldn’t be that bad — it just translates to “I didn’t like it.”)

First, I appreciated the insight it gave me into the history of Afghanistan. I love history and learning about new historical events I hadn’t known before, especially on a personal, human level, and A Thousand Splendid Suns delivers here. Hosseini, through his characters, teaches thirty years of Afghan history — something I’d (embarrassingly enough) been basically ignorant of before reading this book.

Second, I came to appreciate my freedoms as an American more deeply that ever before. Reading of the destructive, demoralizing rule of the Taliban was enlightening, to say the least: how women could exist (yes, “existing” would be the word — it hardly seemed like “living” for anybody) in such an oppressive environment was absolutely unreal. Things I thought were basic privileges of modern society — women in the throes of childbirth being treated in decent hospitals, women working to support my family if necessary, women leaving their homes without head-to-toe covering or a male escort — all of these things (which I had counted as inherent rights) were impossibilities under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The very worst was lack of personal safety — how awful would it be to feel constantly unsafe, unprotected from physical harm, both in and out of your own home. I understand now, as I hadn’t before, how blessed we as Americans are (and me, in particular — I know not everyone feels safe, even in our own country) and how important it is that we fight for freedoms for others who aren’t able to do it for themselves. No one deserves to feel as bound and trapped by a government as these Afghan women did.

So. A book I’d recommend? Probably not. But I book I regret reading? Well, probably not that, either. Two stars ("it was okay." I can't say I liked it.)

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