I finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini about a week ago. Some images continue to haunt me, some ideas continually resurface in the back burners of my mind as I drivel about the mundane tasks of life.
Written from the perspectives of two very different Afghan women, Laila and Mariam, and the almost ridiculously tough circumstances that surround their lives and the man who drives them both together and apart.
I had no expectation of this novel, my only reference point being that the author's first novel The Kite Runner shocked and amazed me as I was reading it and for a long time afterward. I was, therefore, in a very receptive state of mind to read another novel set in Afghanistan.
I havent yet decided whether having no knowledge of the storyline is a positive aspect or a terrible detriment. I guess I lean more towards the former rather than the latter since I read the novel with a fresh untainted perspective.
The shocking parts, though, did so to my very core and I am still startled by the vast cultural void that exists between our very privileged lives and the harsh realities of life under Taliban rule.
Another provoking read, perhaps best for the light of day, rather than the darkness of night.
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