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A Thousand Splendid Suns
MONTHLY GROUP READS
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March 2012 read - A Thousand Splendid suns
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I read it a few years ago and loved it. Hope you guys enjoy it.
This is an amazing book. I love it and everything Afghanistan after it. Can't wait to discuss it with you all soon!
Read this last year. Be interested to see what others think.
I've read this book and found it absolutely beautiful. I might reread it with the group and see what everyone thinks.
Can't find this at my Library. I've only read Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini is a great writer.
How's everyone getting on with this? I finished it quickly enough. I never put it down. I usually listen to a lot of podcasts as well as audiobooks but I didn't listen to anything else until this was finished. A good sign of how much I enjoyed it.I liked that the history and politics of Afghanistan were subtly sewn into the story without every getting overbearing. So often these books can be history lessons with a story sewn in rather than the other way around.
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I'm sure it's been done 1000s of times but I liked the idea of the dual character plot, where one gets a happy ending and the other.. doesn't. We get the happy ever after hollywood ending & a more authentic ending for another.
Metaphors usually go zipping over my head until someone points them out but I was thinking about the Pinocchio references. I think Women in Afghanistan aren't like real people. All Pinnocchio wants is "to be a real boy!" and all Leila and Mariam want is to be treated like real people, not second rate citizens. Their struggle to be real, is the same as Pinocchios. I think.
The hospital scene without the Anesthetic really had me cringing. Could hardly bare to imagine it.
btw I've unmoderated myself - sorry just haven't time and I never wanted to be moderator. If anyone else wants to organize the next monthly read, go ahead, you don't even need to be moderator.
I just had a look for other people talking about Pinocchio and found this:http://theosproject.blogspot.com/2010...
Pinocchio
“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.”
I was intrigued by the author’s explicit reference to the Disney Pinocchio film. When Mariam is a young girl, her father Jalil enchants her with stories of the movie Pinocchio. Jalil owns a theater and the film is showing. Mariam wants to go see the movie. She wants it so badly that she walks all the way to her father’s village and waits on his doorstep for him. But he will not see her. She sleeps on his doorstep, and he will not receive her.
Through a series of events, Mariam’s trip to see her father results in her being pressured/forced to marry Rasheed. Many years later, in an attempt to reconcile with Mariam, Jalil tries to give her a Pinocchio video.
The Pinocchio motif lends itself well to many elements of the novel. In the Disney film, Pinocchio can become real only if he is brave, truthful, and unselfish. Pinocchio must navigate through temptations in a society where he is still a puppet, not yet human. Mariam, representing the women and mothers of Afghanistan, is viewed by the male-dominated society as sub-human, like a wooden puppet who is not yet a real boy. The country of Afghanistan, as well, could be said to be in pursuit of becoming real; however, having pursued this course by violent means, it has become entrenched and trapped in its own hostility.
“Seasons had come and gone. Presidents in Kabul had been inaugurated and murdered. An empire had been defeated. Old wars had ended, and new ones had broken out. But Mariam had hardly noticed, hardly cared. She had passed these years in a distant corner in her mind, a dry, barren field, beyond wish and lament, beyond dream and disillusionment. There the future did not matter, and the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake and its accomplise, hope, a treacherous illusion….”
Mariam’s existence becomes wooden. Over time, she becomes Rasheed’s puppet. He pulls the strings. She stays home. She cooks. She cleans. She becomes Rasheed’s scapegoat, and he beats her when his aggression boils over.
It is love that begins Mariam’s transformation. Laila, the other protagonist in the novel, becomes Rasheed’s second wife. At first, Mariam is jealous and resents her; but eventually Mariam is able to open to Laila and Laila’s little girl, Aziza. Holding Aziza in her arms, she realizes the wonder of the love of a child. In that moment, Mariam becomes a mother.
“Mariam had never before been wanted like this. Love had never been declared to her so guilelessly, so unreservedly….And she marveled at how after all these years of rattling loose, she had found in this little creature the first true connection in her life of false, failed connections.”
Eventually Mariam is fully transformed, and she realizes the full beauty, her true radiance. At the time of her death, she reflects, and she experiences abundant peace.
“Though there had been moments of beauty in it, Mariam knew that life for the most part had been unkind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it…..She would have liked that very much, to be old and to play with Aziza’s children.
Mariam wished for so much in those final moments, yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world…a pitiable, regrettable accident, a weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, as a companion, a guardian, a mother. A person of consequence….This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.
Mariam’s final thoughts were a few words from the Koran that she muttered under her breath.
He has created the heavens and the earth with the truth
He makes the night cover the day and makes the day overtake the night
And he has made the sun and the moon subservient
Each one moves on to an assigned term
Now surely he is the mighty, great forgiver”
For me, this was the most profound moment in the novel. I hesitate to include it in a review; the words feel so sacred, and taking them from their context almost feels inappropriate. Perhaps it is. But these words lead us to something deeply touching about humanity.
Read it a while ago and loved it, I can't seem to distinguish the story well enough to post a better comment so i might root it out and read it again :-)
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It is his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. The book focuses on the tumultuous lives of two Afghan women and how their lives cross each other, spanning from the 1960s to 2003. The book was released on May 22, 2007,[1] and received favorable prepublication reviews from Kirkus,[2] Publishers Weekly[3], Library Journal,[4] and Booklist, as well as reaching #2 on Amazon.com's bestseller list before its release.
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Sunday Telegraph review:
'A beautifully crafted and disturbing story of two women victims of the wrath of men. As unforgettable as The Kite Runner, this novel places us in Afghanistan with an open heart' Isabel Allende 'I loved this book - I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. It is incredibly moving and a real insight into the madness and suffering of Afghanistan - in particular its women' Fiona Bruce 'Hosseini proves his credentials as a superstar storyteller. This follow up to The Kite Runner will have fans rampaging into bookshops desperate for their copy. Yet again he weaves a masterful story around the lives of two extraordinary and compelling characters brought together in adversity' Mariella Frostrup 'At long last, Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns in which the universally adored author of The Kite Runner returns with a study of love and self-sacrifice in a modern Afghan family'
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A full character list. Always handy if you forget characters as easily as I do: http://www.gradesaver.com/a-thousand-...
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The Author's Web site: http://www.khaledhosseini.com/
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Download the first chapter from Amazon
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There are 12 discussion questions for this book - but a bit too early to post them I think. Will post them when we get started.