Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns
I bought this book for a hundred rupees in front of the Victoria Terminus Station at Mumbai, because my cousin, Anj had recommended it (so. hard.) to me.
And what I got in return for a hundred bucks.... was a thousand splendid suns.
Literally, and symbolically.
Before I get to the incoherent wailing and fangirling, here's the thing: This book is priceless. It'll make you smile, laugh, cry, think and feel.
It's the story of two women who live in a war-torn Afghanistan. It's a story of their resilience and courage in a male-dominated society.
But most of all, it's a story of love, loss, pain, endurance, friendship and sacrifices.
I could relate more to Laila than Mariam. Thing is, you can't bring yourself to ship Laila and Tariq because you know something bad's going to happen, and your heart wouldn't be able to take it.
Tariq.
He's my favourite in the whole book. In some ways, it's a coming of age novel too: coming-of-age-in-a-dangerous-shell-blasted-warzone, where Laila and Tariq still dare to love.
I loved, loved, loved the concept of childhood best friends becoming adolescent lovers and ultimately, life partners.
It broke my heart when I learnt Tariq had died, even though I'd braced myself for tragedy, it still broke my heart. And I nearly cried when he comes back for her.
“In Tariq's grimace, Laila learned that boys differed from girls in this regard. They didn't make a show of friendship. They felt no urge, no need, for this sort of talk... Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly.”
I loved this quote best from the book, because of the true-ness of it: I have experienced this myself in life; boys don't feel the need to express their friendship in words, they don't need to say it out loud, they in truth, do treat friendship the exact same way it's described in this quote.
"Laila remembered Mammy telling Babby once that she had married a man who had no convictions. Mammy didn't understand. She didn't understand that if she looked into a mirror, she would find the one unfailing conviction of his life looking right back at her. "
This book has some things that really make you think about how similar or how different it is from your own life; in other words, it makes you empathize.
I never thought I'd understand the plight of women living in such conditions; this book brings out the stark changes that can be brought around by a war.
It has a happy enough ending, because of Mariam's sacrifice. The complexities of love, family, war, and the strongest human emotions have been brought out expertly by Hosseini.
Even if not to tears, this book moved me.
