A Tale of Two Women
Reviewed by Katherine Lee
February 25, 2008
If you thought The Kite Runner was good, A Thousand Splendid Suns is better. Khaled Hosseini thrills us again with his second novel about Afghanistan. Hosseini expertly weaves together not only the lives of two very different women but also an exciting fictional story with the history, politics, and culture of Afghanistan. Like The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns captivates and educates to bring us right into the life of Afghanistan.
And we’re back in Afghanistan again with another one of Khaled Hosseini’s breathtaking novels. However, this one is quite different from his previous book, The Kite Runner. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini shows the other face of Afghanistan, the one sometimes hidden at home left to do the cooking and cleaning, the one often hidden behind a burqa that covers everything but two eyes, the one that Mariam and Laila live. Khaled Hosseini weaves together a tale of two women, with two completely different pasts, but whose paths somehow touch against their will, and whose lives are forever intertwined.
Mariam grew up with her mother in a small kolba that her wealthy father had built just outside of the city of Herat. Every Thursday, Jalil would walk from Heart, where he lived with his three wives and ten other children, to pay a visit to his illegitimate daughter. As a child Mariam did not understand why her father did not live with her, why her parents were not married, and why a harami like her is blamed for being born while her father saves face by not taking responsibility for his actions. Despite her secluded life, Mariam dreams of going to the movie theatre her father owns and finally meeting her other brothers and sisters for her birthday.
Until one day…when everything changes…and Mariam moves into a guest bedroom at her father’s house…only to be married off to a man…thirty years older than she…to live in a city she has never seen. Mariam’s life changes so drastically within a few days that her old life seems a dream, and within a few years, a pleasant one.
Laila is born, just down the street from where Mariam lives with Rasheed, to a loving family. Her father teaches at the university, and her mother enjoys the liberties of being a “modern” woman married to a “modern” man, who allows her to walk outside the house on her own without wearing a burqa. As Laila grows up, the effects of Afghanistan’s politics reach home. Her brothers go off to war, leaving her mother devastated and neglectful to Laila. Her father is laid off from his job at the university and replaced by a more “communist” teacher. Despite all this, Laila’s life seems to revolve only around Tariq, who she falsely describes as “a brother” and “a friend.” As the two of them grow up, Tariq becomes more than a friend, but their love is ripped apart by something greater. The Soviets are defeated, and the Taliban takes over. Suddenly, Laila’s life turns upside down just like Mariam’s did. Tariq is gone. Mama is gone. Baba is gone. And Laila, at fourteen, finds herself married to Rasheed, who by then must have been sixty years old. Those teenage memories of school, friends, bullies, family, and, above all, Tariq soon drift away in essence, leaving only a faint but sweet aura.*
Together, Mariam and Laila find themselves suffering the same fate. How will the two cope with husbands old enough to be their grandfathers? How will Afghanistan’s politics affect their lives? And Tariq? Is he really gone?
A Thousand Splendid Suns still plays out in my mind like its unforgettable predecessor. Hosseini’s writing is so gripping that I blew hundreds of pages before I knew it. However, I found his second novel a bit darker than The Kite Runner and sometimes scary when he allows the reader to witness what women in Afghanistan go through.
Interestingly, Hosseini’s love story between Laila and Tariq remind me of Fitzgerald’s love story between Gatsby and Daisy in The Great Gatsby. The two couples are both separated by the politics of their time but are reunited later on, after the woman has married and had children. Nonetheless, Hosseini’s love story definitely has a happier ending than Fitzgerald’s tragedy.
One thing that confused and interested me was Khaled’s title for his novel: A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled wrote that “the title of this novel comes from a poem composed by Saeb-e-Tabrizi, a seventeenth-century Persian poet” and that he “found it lovely.” Well….What about the end-all be-all I.B. English question!?!: What is the significance of the title? Well, if Khaled truly does not have one, perhaps I can throw in my insight (in case this is ever on a test). I believe the thousand splendid suns symbolize the women of Afghanistan and that Khaled’s novel, including his meaningless title, sends out a plea for Afghanistan to take these suns out of the house, out of the burqa, and to let these suns shine.
*Inspired by Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
