‘One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls"
- Saib Tabrizi
Now, doesn’t that verse sound good? It is by Saib Tabrizi, an Afghan, describing the beautiful and enduring city of Kabul, Afghanistan. Other than writing a poem about his hometown, Saib may have also suggested an idea on how to name a book to Khaled Hosseini who wrote the ‘Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction’ winner, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
The tale is of two cities: Herat and Kabul and two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila. At the beginning, we are dropped into the world of Mariam, a young girl living alone in a kolba in the outskirts of the splendid city of Herat (where she is forbidden to visit) with her unmarried mother. She is denied the simplest pleasures of life and is brought up by her epileptic mother who repeatedly reminds her, ““Learn this now and learn it well. Like a compass facing north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.” The sole reason for her to live is for her weekly visits from her insincere, charming father who runs Herat's cinema, and whose real family she longs to join. It is on her 15th birthday when her pre-ordained story is to be rewritten forever in the hands of the Koran and God. However, Hosseini isn’t the one to be stagnant on the same situation forever; before many pages have been turned Mariam's mother has died, and her unfeeling father has married her off to a 43-year-old acquiantance from Kabul.
Almost a generation later, we switch from Mariam's life to that of a neighbour, the young Laila, who is growing up in a liberal family with a father who believes in her education. She isn’t bound to the rules of her religion and we suddenly see Mariam from the outside: a silent, burqa-clad woman, always in tow of her husband Rasheed: a quiet couple. In a turn of pages, Laila is orphaned and ends up as Rasheed’s second wife. The 3rd part tells the story of how Laila’s child, Aziza, brings the two women together and of how their antagonistic relationship is turned into a relationship as strong as the ties between a mother and daughter. It tells of the sudden change of everyday activities of common people under the Taliban rule. Kabul is suddenly changed from a safe haven to the place where death awaits with his arms open. All people can see everywhere is brutality, starvation, injustice, and above all, inequality.
My most favourite writing style of the book was parts where Khaled took a completely different 3rd person’s point of view, representing Destiny. For example, when Mariam is signing a paper in her nikkah ‘under the watchful gaze of the mullah’, Khaled says, ‘The next time Mariam signed her name to a document, twenty-seven years later, a mullah would be present again.” It is later revealed that the document to be sign twenty-seven years later would be Mariam’s executioning paper.
Another astounding thing is the way Khaled intertwines both history and family together.
He portrays the suffering of women under the Taliban quite brutally, but he doesn’t mill over the sentiments. He goes on with the narrative, allowing the reader to form an opinion on his own. He draws Mariam and Laila and brings them to life, writing about how simple everyday activities, such as watching TV, were influenced by the Taliban. The book displays the shackles of religion that bind Afghan women and forbid them from enjoying the simplest pleasures of life of dancing and singing.
At first, it seems like Mariam and Laila are completely different characters: their lives were completely contradictory - Mariam has always been tied back while Laila was always set free. It is amazing how Khaled tightly interweaves their lives together. Also, their difference in their lifestyles reflects on their attitudes towards Rasheed and every one of their daily activities. Mariam had one of those typical, religious-bound, obeying attitudes while Laila had a rebellious, Malala-like attitude.
On the whole, Hosseini had written a touching, heartfelt book, finally letting it out to the world how cruel Afghanistan had been under the Taliban, how, like the needle in a compass turning north, a man’s accusing finger turns to find a woman and how Afghan every women had to learn to tahamal, endure.
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls"
- Saib Tabrizi
Now, doesn’t that verse sound good? It is by Saib Tabrizi, an Afghan, describing the beautiful and enduring city of Kabul, Afghanistan. Other than writing a poem about his hometown, Saib may have also suggested an idea on how to name a book to Khaled Hosseini who wrote the ‘Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction’ winner, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
The tale is of two cities: Herat and Kabul and two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila. At the beginning, we are dropped into the world of Mariam, a young girl living alone in a kolba in the outskirts of the splendid city of Herat (where she is forbidden to visit) with her unmarried mother. She is denied the simplest pleasures of life and is brought up by her epileptic mother who repeatedly reminds her, ““Learn this now and learn it well. Like a compass facing north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.” The sole reason for her to live is for her weekly visits from her insincere, charming father who runs Herat's cinema, and whose real family she longs to join. It is on her 15th birthday when her pre-ordained story is to be rewritten forever in the hands of the Koran and God. However, Hosseini isn’t the one to be stagnant on the same situation forever; before many pages have been turned Mariam's mother has died, and her unfeeling father has married her off to a 43-year-old acquiantance from Kabul.
Almost a generation later, we switch from Mariam's life to that of a neighbour, the young Laila, who is growing up in a liberal family with a father who believes in her education. She isn’t bound to the rules of her religion and we suddenly see Mariam from the outside: a silent, burqa-clad woman, always in tow of her husband Rasheed: a quiet couple. In a turn of pages, Laila is orphaned and ends up as Rasheed’s second wife. The 3rd part tells the story of how Laila’s child, Aziza, brings the two women together and of how their antagonistic relationship is turned into a relationship as strong as the ties between a mother and daughter. It tells of the sudden change of everyday activities of common people under the Taliban rule. Kabul is suddenly changed from a safe haven to the place where death awaits with his arms open. All people can see everywhere is brutality, starvation, injustice, and above all, inequality.
My most favourite writing style of the book was parts where Khaled took a completely different 3rd person’s point of view, representing Destiny. For example, when Mariam is signing a paper in her nikkah ‘under the watchful gaze of the mullah’, Khaled says, ‘The next time Mariam signed her name to a document, twenty-seven years later, a mullah would be present again.” It is later revealed that the document to be sign twenty-seven years later would be Mariam’s executioning paper.
Another astounding thing is the way Khaled intertwines both history and family together.
He portrays the suffering of women under the Taliban quite brutally, but he doesn’t mill over the sentiments. He goes on with the narrative, allowing the reader to form an opinion on his own. He draws Mariam and Laila and brings them to life, writing about how simple everyday activities, such as watching TV, were influenced by the Taliban. The book displays the shackles of religion that bind Afghan women and forbid them from enjoying the simplest pleasures of life of dancing and singing.
At first, it seems like Mariam and Laila are completely different characters: their lives were completely contradictory - Mariam has always been tied back while Laila was always set free. It is amazing how Khaled tightly interweaves their lives together. Also, their difference in their lifestyles reflects on their attitudes towards Rasheed and every one of their daily activities. Mariam had one of those typical, religious-bound, obeying attitudes while Laila had a rebellious, Malala-like attitude.
On the whole, Hosseini had written a touching, heartfelt book, finally letting it out to the world how cruel Afghanistan had been under the Taliban, how, like the needle in a compass turning north, a man’s accusing finger turns to find a woman and how Afghan every women had to learn to tahamal, endure.
