A Thousand Splendid Suns

You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you have to see and feel.
– Khaled Hosseini

Overview

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a stunning story set against the unpredictable occasions of Afghanistan’s most recent thirty years, this truly is a masterpiece by Khaled Hosseini.

Beginning from the Soviet’s brutal invasion to the reign of the Taliban, and till post-Taliban rebuilding, the readers are taken on a voyage in and out through. Afghanistan’s viciousness, dread, hope, and confidence of its people in intimate human terms. It is a narrative of two generations of characters united jarringly by the tragic compass of war, where each individuals’ life and their battle to endure, raise a family and discover joy are inseparable from the history that’s happening around them. We get acquainted with Mariam in the first half of the story and later to Laila who is our darling protagonist here. Hosseini throws light on these two young girls for us to know them as helpless, broken, and wrecked beyond measure souls, who do not even try anymore to make their lives better, but have just accepted it as the fate of nature and are living in the comfortable oblivion of pain and suffering. We are also introduced to a whole new world of a patriarchal society that we would have ceased to imagine to have existed.

The book also has elements of indestructible love and friendship followed by astonishing accomplishments of their time.

Writing Style And Tone

Hosseini writes the tale of A thousand splendid Suns in a first-person narrative. He walks us through the lives of Mariam and Laila in each step and stone.

His style of composition holds a sense of thoughtfulness and disturbance. He has sympathy for those that bear the weight of the war. He constantly creates and depicts an image in our minds as we flip over pages.

The tone of the novel is moody. Sometimes we are laughing at Laila’s nativity and another we are hopeful about Mariam finding an exit from all her misery. This book is a phase of different emotions all at once. The tone is predominantly of despair and regret which at a point might exhaust us to even process the kind of apathy it shows. But we also want to know what’s in store for Mariam and Laila! So like a brook, We relentlessly flow into the ending.

Target audience

There are some books that cannot be objectively reviewed with parameters such as writing style or vocabulary content. These books can only be read and felt. These books contain life lessons and stories that are told so beautifully and with such involvement and intensity that they cannot be reviewed. They can only be read and felt. So that’s why, in this post, I’m going to leave it at the overview and writing style. It’s up to your fine discretion to make a conscious choice of reading or not reading a book this beautiful.

Thank you.

Open for critics and discussions.

Cheers and Blithe until next!