BookSummer2: A Thousand Splendid Pages

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini, 2007

ATSS (A Thousand Splendid Suns) is a flowing narrative of two women and what they share in a war torn Afghanistan. I’ll stray away a little from writing the customary book experience. In it’s stead, here is a scribble I inked when a thought rolled over from the pages and struck my head.

No matter what the circumstances — in the case of the book, war — what matters the most are people. Your people, my people, our people. Oftentimes, due to reasons existing and imaginary, we impose a distance between ourselves and those who really, truly matter to us. Worrying about his social image had Jalal Khan disown his illegitimate child. In mourning her dead sons, Farida forgot to love her lively daughter Laila. It was when war actualized over their heads that both Jalal and Farida ceased to be stubborn and embraced acceptance. Need we really wait for the extremities to strike us, for the dark clouds to roll over, to embrace those who we love?

I’ve been a sucker for paradoxes ever since I first understood what they were. Here’s a starter thought.

The Burqa Paradox. As I am to understand from ATSS (never having garbed myself in one), wearing a burqa provides a sense of anonymity, an experience almost second to the Invisibility cloak. Whilst invisibility is a superpower for us humans, anonymity is something we do wish for from time to time. I suppose then, that being under the burqa, unabashedly observing the world without being observed back must have been quite a pleasure for the ever curious spirit that Laila was. Yet, Hosseini has us well acquainted with her and soon enough, we see her desire to be the game changer make her take a courageous stand against the concealment imposed on her… It is interesting to note how differently Mariam takes to the burqa than Laila. Mariam accepts it meekly, seeks comfort in being unnoticed, anonymous.