A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

This is Hosseini's second novel of Afghanistan. My review of his first is here. Like some books, it is difficult to write a synopsis of the plot of A Thousand Splendid Suns without potentially givnig too much away. I'll try to err on the side of not giving away spoilers.

The book tells the story of two Afghan women, Mariam (b. 1959) and Laila, who is 19 years younger. Mariam is a country girl who's considered an inconvenience to her family and is married off to man (Rasheed) in Kabul who's perhaps 25 or 30 years her senior. There (eventually) she meets Laila, and after a slow start, their relationship blossoms.

The book has sections from Mariam's point of view, and sections from Laila's. As far as I can tell, it tells the story of "typical" middle-class women in Afghanistan through the days of the monarchy, the Soviet invasion, the anarchy leading to the Taliban, and beyond. In addition to nastiness outside the home, nastiness inside the home is also explored. One point the author makes is that there are always innocent casualties when violent acts are performed (some more subtle than others).

The book was gripping, but I found a few sections to be more disturbing than I normally prefer. I recently read something by Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) who (I'm paraphrasing) said he doesn't understand people who like to see sad movies (or read sad books, I assume). Adams believes that feeling sad is very close to feeling bad. That is something he tries to avoid, and doesn't enjoy. For me, parts of Suns were like that, more so than Kite Runner.

I'd also say that Suns has more of a feel of "real life" to it. By this, I mean that not everything revolves around resolving past mistakes. Sometimes, past wrongs can't be righted. I can still see things Hosseini added to make the novel "work", but less so than the last book. I'll also give this one four stars out of five. It's different than Kite Runner, though I haven't decided if it's better or worse.