Book Review of a Thousand Splendid Suns

Book Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns 17th century Afghanistan poet Saib-e-Tabrizi wrote this commendatory poem after visiting Kabul. ‘Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye; Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass; One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs; And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls. ’ In this world there are still many women say that they are suffering unfair treatment and demand for the right to vote, the right to manage.But to the women who had experienced two Afghanistan war (The first time Afghanistan war: from 1979 to 1989, the former Soviet Union armed invasion of Afghanistan. Second Afghanistan war: the second Afghanistan war in 2001 is based on United States-led coalition forces on October 7, 2001 for Afghanistan war cover to the Organization and the Taliban, for the United States on the revenge of the 911 incident, also marks the start of the war against terrorism. Not ended. ), the only thing what t hey want is to live.Khaled Hosseini has lived in the United States since he was fifteen years old and is an American citizen. His 2003 debut novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, selling more than 12 million copies worldwide. His second, A Thousand Splendid Suns, was released on May 22, 2007. In 2008, the book was the bestselling novel in Britain (as of April 11, 2008), with more than 700,000 copies sold. In 2006, he was appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Office) goodwill ambassadors, currently residing in Northern California.The Buffalo News says ‘Hosseini's literary abilities are such that he is able to do what all great artists do: take individual stories and, through the alchemy of insight, compassion and expression, universalize them—thereby turning them into art. ’ For reasons why he wrote this novel, Khaled Hosseini is saying ‘ although life is filled with pain and bitterness but each a sad plot can let people see hope in the Sun. Each faces behind dusty has a soul. Dedicated to Afghanistan's women.In 2003, returning to Kabul I see wearing traditional female twos and threes to go masked costume in the streets, was trailing behind their children dressed in rags, begging passers-by give change. At that moment, I would like to know, where they have been taken to life. What they dream, hope and desire? Did they talk about love? Husband how man? Spread in Afghanistan in the years to 20 years of war, they lost what? I talked with many women in Kabul; their stories are real people and heart.When I began to write of the thousand splendid Suns (a Thousand Splendid Suns), I find myself constantly think of those full of toughness of Afghanistan women. I though they may not be thrown describing Laila or Mariam source of inspiration for the role of the story, however their voices, faces and life stories of perseverance has always haunted me, and about the novel, I had a most inspiring is from Afghani stan collective spiritual power of women. ’ Mariam (She is my favorite role in this book), the illegitimate child of a Herat businessman, is forced into a loveless marriage at age fifteen to a middle-aged Kabul shoemaker, Rasheed.He demands absolute obedience from his spouse, as well as strict observance of Islamic customs restricting the movement, appearance and attire of women. In the early years of their marriage, Rasheed's mandates run counter to the modernizing forces in Kabul, where many women hold professional jobs, teach at the university, or run for public office. But with the rise of the Taliban, a whole society falls into lockstep with these dictates of Sharia, traditional Muslim law.Laila, a woman young enough to be Mariam's daughter, becomes a reluctant member of this household, when her parents are killed in a bombing, and all her friends have either die d or departed from Kabul. Rasheed takes her on as a second wife, and his bullying and overbearing behavior gr ow all the worse as the two women band together to resist his authoritarian control over their lives. When they try to escape, an Afghani man betrays them at the bus station and takes Laila's hard-saved money. This makes Rasheed even more abusive.A few years later the Taliban come into town, and all the stereotypes of the Taliban are emphasized, as if Hosseini was given the charter to reinforce them. Mariam ends up killing Rasheed in trying to save Laila from being killed by him. So, Mariam is executed by the Taliban, who â€Å"cannot† accept her story because of her being a woman. Thus, Mariam's woeful existence comes to end. Her whole life is a necklace of tragic events, pieced together one after another. And with her death, the reader is left with an enduring sense of sadness for M ariam, especially in the fact that Hosseini never did give her a break in her fictional life.As for Laila, she ends up traveling to Pakistan to marry her original love(r), eventually returning b ack to Kabul to work with an orphanage. The novel traces the trials and tribulations of Mariam and Laila as they struggle for survival, and eventually plan for a daring escape attempt that puts them at odds. Not only with Rasheed, but also with an entire society that sees them as little more than chattel. Hosseini skillfully develops the complexities and predicaments of his plot, which constantly intersects with political and social events in recent Afghan history.When I saw this book, thinking it may like The Kite Runner; finally, we will smile for the happy ending. But I was wrong. I was shocked when I read to Mariam lastly dead in order for Laila’s escaping. In the past years, Mariam has been in a miserable life. A birth is being neighbors’ laugh at, played a trick on illegitimate. Once a month to see her father. Then, naively think can and live with the father, but has to face her mother's death and father’s betrayal. At the age of 15, she is arranged to mar ry Rasheed, a shoemaker from Kabul who is thirty years her senior Also is not out of the mother's grief is far to marry someone from distance. She turned to Jalil again,’ tell them. Tell them you won’t do this’ Waiting. A silence fell over the room. Jalil kept twirling his wedding band, with a bruised, helpless look on his face. From inside the cabinet, the clock ticked on and on. † When I saw here, I feel myself becoming Mariam, despite knowing the answer is ‘ no ‘ but also hope that their father would not do such cruel things. In Kabul, Mariam becomes pregnant seven successive times, but is never able to carry a child to term, and Rasheed gradually becomes more abusive. â€Å"His powerful hands clasped her jaw.He shoved two fingers into her mouth and pried it open, then forced the cold, hard pebbles into it. Mariam struggled against him, mumbling, but he kept pushing the pebbles in, his upper lip curled in a sneer. ‘Now chew,’ h e said. Through the mouthful of grit and pebbles, Mariam mumbled a plea. Tears were leaking out of the corners of her eyes. ‘CHEW! ’ he bellowed. A gust of his smoky breath slammed against her face. Mariam chewed. Something in the back of her mouth cracked. ’Good,’ Rasheed said. His cheeks were quivering. ‘Now you know what your rice tastes like.Now you know what you've given me in this marriage. Bad food, and nothing else. ‘Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars†. Beside the shortly peace time of weeding,, Mariam has always been that a dozen years of life. Full of cursing and render phase. Read here, how much I hope that she will be a turning point in life. She can have a happy life, a long time to heal he pain since childhood and adolescence. But life is often not as we expected. After Laila marry to Rasheed, Mariam's identity than wife more like a maid.Mariam also abhorred La ila, but after all, both they are poor women. So, when Mariam says â€Å"There's nothing more I want. Everything I'd ever wished for as a little girl, you've already given me. You and your children have made me so very happy. It's all right, Laila jo. This is all right. Don't be sad. â€Å"Laila could find no reasonable answer for anything Mariam said. But she rambled on anyway, incoherently, childishly, about fruit trees that awaited planting and chickens that waited rising. She went on about small houses in unnamed towns, and walks to trout filled lakes.And, in the end, when the words dried up, the tears did not, and all Laila could do was surrender and sob like a child over whelmed by an adult's unassailable logic. All she could do was roll herself up and bury her face one last time in the welcoming warmth of Mariam's lap. Later that morning, Mariam packed Zalmai a small lunch of bread and dried figs. For Aziza too she packed some figs, and a few cookies shaped like animals. Sh e put it all in a paper bag and gave it to Laila. â€Å"Kiss Aziza for me,† she said. â€Å"Tell her she is the noon of my eyes and the sultan of my heart.Will you do that for me? † I can not control my excitement and couldn't help but shed tears. This great Mariam, although she was so limited in education, her fate has been so bumpy. But she still pay her own life in exchange for the freedom of Laila . And finally, as she died lonely, was killed by Taliban with stones. Her fate was unfortunate. Her fate was always driven. Even if Her one day have mastered fate, ending is ironic. She is not demanding from fate what, a little happy, it will make them happy. ‘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, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And ye t she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings. This paragraph for Mariam after her and Laila killed Rasheed, at the end of the execution ground inner monologue. ) Fate did not forgive her, but she eventually forgave fate. She was patience, she is great. Than Mariam, I personally think that Laila is much more fortunate. She was born in a wealthy family, has a good education. But war deprived this beauty girl of happy life. She was forced to separate from her lover- Tariq and all her families died because of the war. Due to be alone in the world, she was forced married Rasheed.The girl's life was completely changed because of the war. It is no doubt that she felled from heaven into hell. But luckily the nice girl met be auty minded Mariam. Because Rasheed found that the first child is not his own, also began to maltreat her. All the good luck seemed to give the Laila. After Mariam and Laila’s escape failed, Laila met Tariq again on the streets of Kabul. Finally, Mariam and Laila killed their husband together. Mariam clocked all charges and let Laila peaceful leave with Tariq. Thanks author for Laila does a person know to be grateful. As she walks to her desk at the front of the class, Laila thinks of the naming game they'd played again over dinner the night before. It has become a nightly ritual ever since Laila gave Tariq and the children the news. Back and forth they go, making a case for their own choice. Tariq likes Mohammad. Zalmai, who has recently watched Superman on tape, is puzzled as to why an Afghan boy cannot be named Clark. Aziza is campaigning hard for Aman. Laila likes Omar . But the game involves only male names. Because if it's a girl, Laila has already named her. In the end of this novel, Laila with Tariq together go back to Kabul and set up a locally school. Laila do this in order to repay this piece of land and her Savior Mariam. Finally, I want to talk about on the Mariam and Laila common husband Rasheed. Mariam and Laila live in a patriarchal authoritarian society, where women must obey their fathers, husbands and sons, only a son can give them access to social status. Rasheed for their husbands, the â€Å"me, and do not allow cursing, screaming, begging and howling, only the daily routine of playing and being hit. And that violence is a social and legal recognition. To a certain extent, we should not condemn Rasheed. Although he married to the pretty young girl Laila by telling lies, said Tariq is dead. Has a very oppressive side of his character. He was the victim of the system. He not only represents himself, mapped out a malformation of social moral values. In Afghanistan even more we don't know where in the world, there are many men are affe cted by social oppression and do the same cruel treatment of women and children.This book makes me sigh, how many injustices and tribulations a woman can bear. Originally Jalil like Nana, instead finally came into Nana seduce Jalil; just because have no child, ridiculed in a wife bear husband ridicule, irony and even beatings; to innocent little lives in the stomach, Laila can give up name node, you can discard face, She can give up everything that she can give up. Afghanistan woman in the face of suffering like a snowflake falls in General on other people's Windows, quietly melting, no sound, no moaning, only silent obedience of loneliness and despair.But suffering does not make them progressive annihilation, but shaped their great personality and will. Beset the outbreak of war, disease, families of the lost, which, on their face with a bear patiently the calm, give them the desire to live more strongly. Any suffering won't make them shaken confidence in life, because in their min d, have no â€Å"disappointed†, not â€Å"sad†. Unfortunately for it, they must endure, and it is still affordable. Normally I'm more of an action-adventure type reader when it comes to novels and recreational reading.But I was given the chance to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner), so I decided to try something out of my normal genre. I am so glad I did. This is a stunning and moving novel of life and love in Afghanistan over a 30 year period. And the past Afghanistan in my eyes has been always associated with wars, the Taliban, Bin Laden, displacement, terrorists and Jihad. By the author and his beautiful writing, I saw Afghan are yearning for freedom, hope in the future In our society now, from the films, books or other media, we tend to see are both indifference of humanity in a little bit.And this book tells the inexcusable age, two Afghanistan unlikely friendships between a woman and not destroying love story. Husseini st roke light, sincere, simple, time spans forty or fifty years, depicting two different character actress: Mariam and Laila, struggling their tragic twists and turns of fate, their stories heavy despair and warm bright, behind the sad story of the stubborn looking good and hope not to be destroyed. Through it, we should realize, that human society still need to love and trust. Humanity just like the splendid suns will follow in every corner of the world.