1000 Splendid Suns

[trulymadlydeeply]

Just finished this and it's on my mind as it was so brilliant.

Has anyone else read it and loved it like I did?

Abbey - If you can suspend your disbelief and enjoy a book where characters are not believable, more power to you

I can't.

I don't understand the criticism tbh.

I loved KR and 1000. I thought both were fabulous metaphorically and literally. They were both effectively fables. Not meant to be particularly detailed accounts of history but simple stories which in this case were set against the backdrop of Afghanistan.

Can't comment on the incorrect arabic but I don't agree that it was inconceiveable that Miriam would be isolated from other women. Her situation was not simply that of oppressed group (ie, a woman in a society that oppresses women) but also a neglected child and abused wife. We know that abusers tend to isolate their victims - read that on MN often enough.

Cote, I just think the book was about more than these details.
If it's historical detail you're after, he's obviously not the right author; his style is deliberately sparse. Some people put in details of what they ate for each meal for instance; just because he didn't, and concentrated on the less prosaic, doesn't mean the book doesn't have qualities.

The human and emotional element was constructed well imo.

lots of people mispronounce arabic. even the arabic teachers. i had to correct dh when he ws trying to correct dc to his, incorrect way of pronouncing an arabic letter.
so the mistake of the kalma isnt that big a deal
lets, see, the illegitmate, (ie. bastard, in th eoriginal meaning of th eword) child of a fallen woman. why would the women in the village mix with her? ezpecially one who was regularly posessed by the devil? it's so sad, but soooo believable. if anything, i thought that she had it quite good as a child. material things taken care of. a kindly teacher. the old lady who was nice to them. and a father who was too good to be true for two hours a week.
yes, she was an abused child. but it could have been much much much worswefor her.

"Abusers tend to isolate their wives" does not begin to describe Miriam's situation. In more than a decade, she did not go to the market, no neighbor knocked on her door, she didn't talk to anybody in the village.

You are looking at this with West European eyes. In such closed societies, especially in small villages, women are together very often. They cook together. They eat together. They wash clothes together.

It's hard to describe but I have to say that the scenario in this book sounds implausible. Near-impossible, even.

Author obviously did it that way so he could avoid saying anything about village life, interaction between people, traditions, etc all those things he doesn't really know about.

This is a bit more than 'mispronounced Arabic'. Nobody would mispronounce 'Allah'.

This phrase is engrained in the minds of every Muslim. It is the most important phrase of Islam. We are talking about 'shahadah', profession of faith, most important of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Seriously. Don't even try to find an excuse for it.

The reasons I didn't like it are not really to do with authenticity, as I don't know a great deal about Afghanistan or its Islamic tradition. It's more about the book as a work of fiction. The contrived aspect was one of the things that annoyed me the most. Both books had a forced ending and I felt cheated. But even more importantly, I just don't think his writing is very powerful; I think it's rather emotionally cheap.

But then I love John Updike and most women I meet (women, rather than people) can't see that at all.

I just got completely lost in the story. I thought the characters were extremely well drawn and agree with northernrefugee that the human and emotional element was well constructed so I don't care that it wasn't plausible. I tend to nitpick if I know something about the subject, and then it spoils the story for me, but in this case I have to look at it with Western European eyes because I have no firsthand or even secondhand experience and I think that he is a brilliant storyteller. It was so vivid it was like being in the cinema.

It is like a book printed in Saudi Arabia about the US that only talks about hamburgers. Written in Arabic. By an 'American' who left US as a child and lived in SA all his life. That passes indoors 99% of the time because author can't describe life in the US or how people would interact.

Probably the people who read it in Saudi Arabia would be quite happy about it.
I read House at Riverton by an Australian who had researched upstairs, downstairs life in an English Edwardian country house. I dare say that Australians think it is great. I did an awful lot of nitpicking on that one!

My point exactly.

I though I was a 'shallow one' too, when I said to my closest friend that 1000 SS bored me!

I think some of the women in the book groups 'love' the book as it is the done thing to do, it would make you an outcast if you dare to criticise it. ( IMO)

I know a lot about arabic life too, as my DS has lived in Saudi for 7 years and I spend a month or more there each summer.

I have my own abaya too.

I found house at riverton a struggle to get through AbbeyA - quite slow and dull at times.
What was the points you were nitpicking on?

Unfortunately I can't remember ilovefoxes, it was a book that I struggled through! It just doesn't stick in my mind whereas I read Kite Runner ages ago and remember it well and I think that 1000 SS will stick in my mind, although I am not sure that I will ever read them again.

Did you read half of a yellow sun?

Did anyone enjoy that?

I haven't read Half of a Yellow Sun, but I didn't much care for 1000 Splendid Suns. I found it a bit relentless and contrived, especially the misery after misery after misery of the women. I found Mariam and her abusive husband quite two dimensional characters, one "nice" ("yay!") one not nice ("boo!). It was a page turner but it also annoyed me after a while.

Some bits just didn't ring true, and reminded me this was written by a man. In the beginning, Nana pushes for two days to give birth to Mariam. WTF. Then at the end of Chapter 32 (sorry to be pedantic ) Laila catches her breath suddenly when the baby kicks for the first time. For me, and everyone I know, the first kicks are like funny little bubbles ("Was that really a kick? Or just indigestion?") and not big events that send your "hands shooting down to your belly". Feel free to argue!

And Laila was born with 'jade green eyes'

I would recommend Half a Yellow Sun,, it is a wonderful book and I now understand the history of the area and Biafra. I also liked Purple Hibiscus.

Yes CoteDAzur that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

I'm back from book group, after (wo)manfully making my way through torrential rain and extensive flooding - I thought the car was going to be swept away in one place.

The concensus is that both of KH's books are good. Your point, CoteDazure, about the lack of interaction didn't find any takers, everyone felt it was meant to reflect the restrictions of life under the Taliban. Even one Muslim attendee agreed with that. Your point about Mariam's ability to mix relatively easily did find some takers, though.

While we were discussing both books it became obvious that there are so many shared themes. The cinema, infertility, the orphanage...um...and several others which I've forgotten already. It does make me wonder if KH has anything else to write about.

Miriam had no contact with anybody before the Taliban came to power, though.

Yes, that's true. Other women thought that Mariam didn't mix with people because she felt stigmatised by her harami label. I was 'voted down' over another issue but another unconvincing part to me was her father. He'd visited her regularly for 15yrs and then abandoned her, apart from one attempt to visit? Weird. Still, it provoked a lot of discussion, 2.5hrs worth!

If she chose not to have any contact with people, then that theme should have been developed. If the villagers shunned her for being a bastard (did they even know this at the beginning?) then that theme should have been developed.

Instead, we have a woman who has never had any contact with anybody (groceries appear miraculously in the house for her to cook?) for over a decade and there is no explanation.

I got the feeling that it was because author didn't know what to say about the outside world.

I don't think details about shopping appearing etc and doing the washing in a group are relevent particularly... a writer isn't compelled to make a diary of events. They ahve a choice ...
My kids sometimes say whent they're watching a film... you know Mum, he's been chasing so and so all day and hasn't even had lunch.... now that is understandable because the visual time line is there.

Buit a book does not have to do the miutiae of every day, or explain every detail.

Just because he didn't write about trips to the market or washrooms doesn't mean she didn't do it....spare writing style...

I've read both 1000 suns and KR and both times felt that the author was trying to meet his audience's preconceptions and expectations of the culture and religion, i.e. he was describing it as many Western readers believe/expect it to be. Perfect timing to release novels like these, dare I say it.
However, I place both books on my list of 'books I don't want to put down'. He is a good storyteller.