Lit: A Thousand Splendid Suns

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
KHALED HOSSEINI
RIVERHEAD BOOKS 2007

By Nick McGregor

Following up his debut novel-turned-international bestseller wasn’t very difficult for Khaled Hosseini. “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” like its predecessor “The Kite Runner,” personalizes the plight of Afghanistan’s citizens, examining the cultural consequences suffered during the country’s revolution and Taliban takeover. Although Hosseini was applauded for his unflinching depiction of violence in “The Kite Runner,” the scenes of horrific abuse found in “A Thousand Splendid Suns” are even tougher to stomach. But those instances, like one where a husband beats his wife unconscious and locks her in a tool shed, serve to show the Western world the oppression and injustice historically inflicted upon women in Afghanistan.

The story revolves around two women who, from very different backgrounds, end up married to the same man. Utilizing sparse prose, Hosseini relates the story of Mariam, an illegitimate child born in Herat who is confined by her wealthy father to a tiny shack on the outskirts of town. After her mother’s suicide, Mariam is married off to Rasheed, a much older shoemaker from Kabul with a penchant for reckless anger and physical intimidation. He forces his new wife to wear a burqa, only allows her to leave the house in his company, and after she has a miscarriage, begins a regular cycle of beatings as punishment for not bearing a child.

Laila is the daughter of liberal parents who are killed during Afghanistan’s civil war, leaving her in Kabul without family or friends. Mariam and Rasheed take her in, and the now-elderly shoemaker has no qualms about asking the orphaned 14-year-old Laila to be his second wife. Domestic disputes ensue, but when Laila gives birth to Aziza (who was fathered by her childhood friend Tariq), the two women come to terms with their shared existence. While the first half of “A Thousand Splendid Suns” treads through simplistic and overdone melodrama, the rapid descent of the two women into cruel captivity kickstarts the narrative. As Rasheed’s brutal temper swells and the reality of life at the mercy of the Taliban becomes clear, Hosseini’s prose careens along to its conclusion with page-turning vigor.

Americans typically only think of war and terrorism when they hear the word “Afghanistan”, so Hosseini deserves praise for his humanizing character studies. And while “A Thousand Splendid Suns” may not win major literary awards, the lean yet powerful writing is impossible to ignore. The novel’s sentimental conclusion may seem hard to swallow, though. It only takes a passing glance at the news to realize that the violence and chaos described so vividly by Hosseini still rules the lives of Afghanistan’s citizens.