1000 Splendid Suns

OK - Abbey -I'll read on but I might have to do it from behind the sofa (a-la Doctor Who!)

I loved it...more than Kite Runner.

Read on marge2-it doesn't happen as you might imagine.

I think he is a good story teller. I find his descriptions very vivid and I can 'see' the places as I read. He draws the characters very sympathetically and I strongly identify with them, although I have very little in common with them. I loved the relationship between the two boys in Kite Runner. My DH gave up half way through Kite Runner, he thought it was too contrived and couldn't stand it. I would agree that it is contrived but it is still one of my favourite books.

Oh NO - I've just started it - If anyone is going to be executed I'm going to STOP! Especially if it's the main character. I can't read it all knowing she will be killed.

Damn - I was enjoying it too!!

I wouldn't say everyone who has enjoyed '1000 SS' is 'shallow' but seeing several people nominated it as Best Book Ever, I did wonder what kind of books some people normally read to think this was so extraordinary.

My comment was not about intelligence.

Does anyone here really think '1000 SS' was a cerebral book with complicated characters and an intricate plot?

It was about two women being abused in a variety of ways through the years, and their solidarity under this abuse. Yes, that is terrible. Yes, we all feel sorry for them. And that is it, really. It is a simple book with a simple message.

I thought it was an absorbing and thoroughly good read, as was The Kite Runner, which I found slightly more moving.
It's interesting to hear Cote's and MaryAnn's (Hi- FAB yt of the boy- will mail you!) views, because I did have a constant feeling throughout the book that wanted more detail about place, history, etc. Continually left slightly hungry if that makes sense.
Having said that, I think it was superbly written in terms of the characters, (and domestic detail) I don't think you can dismiss a book because it hasn't got depth of historical detail, when it's obvious theme was to concentrate on the situation of the people, not place.

I cried at the end of The Kite Runner.....

I enjoyed it and was moved by it.

I don't think I am unintelligent but would admit to not being especially well versed about Islam or Afganistan.

To me, it was merely a story with a historic backdrop. If I'd have wanted to read something to specifically educate myself about Islam/Sharia/Afganistan - I'd have bought a non fiction book.

my book group are all intelligent and loved it, I reckon I';m intelligent too but didn't really respond in the same way, so obviously it appeals differently...I just wonderred if I was odd or a hardened old cynic to be so unmoved

I think to imply that fans of 100 Splendid Suns are shallow is quite patronising. Many very intelligent and well read people really enjoyed this novel. It is a good story and whether you enjoyed it a not is a question of taste. I would no more judge someone who did not like than I would someone who did.

!

MaryAnn - I don't think you are the shallow one.

I always worry that I'm terribly shallow or unfeeling - all my book group loved the Kite Runner/1000 suns/half a yellow moon

Oh, good. I always feel as if I might have missed something if other people rave about a book I'm lukewarm towards.

no singersgirl, me too.

Was it just me who found it rather dull and not particularly well written? I found it so manipulative, though not quite as bad as "The Kite Runner', which really irritated me.

I don't know about the Islamic/Afghani angle of it, but just didn't rate it.

hooray Miyazaki !

Sure, there are some brilliant books written by people who have never lived where the story takes place. This is just not one of them.

The story takes place during some great upheavals - invasions, civil war, resistance, regime change. Normally, these would be woven into the story line. Not in this book. Here, they are told by third parties, once in a while.

Just for comparison, our book club is now reading Kate Mosse's "Labyrinth". Although set in the Middle Ages, so obviously not a time/culture the author is familiar with, I feel like Mosse knows more about and shares more detail with medieval Carcassone than Hosseini knows/tells about Afghanistan.

Thanks, Cote. Am C&P-ing (aka plagiarism) your post for my book group tomorrow.

I didn't like it. had to read it for book club.

Think he is V overrated. imvho.

Loved it - not as much as the Kite Runner though.

But Cote, does the fact that the author did not directly experience the events he recalls necessarily mean it is not a great read? I don't think so. Many great books are written about placed and events that the authors could only imagine.

Also the book is about personal relationships. The author was not trying to write a book that gave the reader a tour of Afghanistan and its monuments, he was trying to explore the effects of war, isolation and prejudice on two women in a society where they are disenfranchised. He has managed to write it in such a way that the majority of readers and absorbed and very moved.

In my opinion he is a very good story teller.

The author has left Afghanistan with his family as a child. He has lived in Paris, and then in California, where he lives to this day.

He wasn't in Afghanistan when the Taliban came. He wasn't there when Taliban fought Soviets. He wasn't there when Soviets withdrew. He heard about all this from TV and newspapers, just like the rest of us.

That he doesn't know much about Afghanistan is is obvious when you read the book. 95% of the story is indoors and main characters talk to a handful of people, probably so that the author can avoid having to talk about Afghan people, their interactions, and especially their cities, landmarks, customs, etc.

The only Afghan monument discussed in the whole book are the two Buddha statues blown up by the Taliban that everyone else in the world knows about. The books/authors it references are Western Classics like Pinocchio, Old Man and the Sea, etc.

It's a book written in English, by a guy who is Afghan only by heritage, and for the Western audience.