A Thousand Splendid Suns

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" is BRILLIANTLY written, but will shake you to the depths of your HUMAN HEART AND SOUL! This book will have you feeling a super human strength to cause the utmost harm to the characters that YOU KNOW EXIST outside of these pages! My prayers of escape, survival, fortitude, love, and strength radiates to every woman that share the experiences in this book. What a SERIOUS, complete, yet heartbreaking and BITTERSWEET ending, with many lessons on what character, love, pride, sacrifice, and TRUE BRAVERY looks like and to think about. NEVER, EVER will I FORGET this book, as, again, it shook me to the depths of my heart and soul and left me numb!

I don't usually leave book reviews, but I have to for this one. I have read hundreds of sad books in my lifetime, but this is definitely the saddest of them all. My heart is in pieces, and I know that this book will stay with me for the rest of my days. It is the most beautiful gem of literature, and at the same time the most devastating. (And here I was, thinking it could not get any more heartbreaking than The Kite Runner)

Gone are the days that would take me weeks to finish a 400 something page novel. I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns in 3 days. And there is nothing "splendid" in this agonizingly sad, depressing, horror-stricken story of women and children who are brutalized, beaten, and treated worse than animals, with a life that begins depressingly sad and gets progressively worse until you can't take it anymore, but you keep reading because the story telling is brilliant, and you - if not the characters - want some kind of revenge, but the author keeps you hungry, hungry for a simple taste of justice and a simple drop of satisfaction. He keeps driving his mad blood-thirsty wife-beating loathsome male characters - save for one - and you want to tear at them with a knife and finish them off yourself! Sooooooo, as you can see, it was not a happy book, and I'll not read the other stories by Hosseini at this time simply because, like Mariam, the truly sad character, said it so well, "what good does it do?" What good does it do knowing the heart-wrenching brutalities that go on still in the 21st centuries in countries like Afghanistan? What good does it do to know about it? What good is it to witness horribly wrong things from a distance but not be able to help? As for writing style, I loved Hosseini's story telling style. Being from Iran, the Farsi words that he throws at you are from my mother tongue so they had a particularly hard sting and their meaning went deep inside me, awakening distant memories of the horrific government of Iran that has more than its own shares of similar brutalities. Yes, indeed the human spirit does thrive and that is a beautiful thing to see, but oh goodness, if I had to go back, I am not sure I'd read this book to get an example of the human spirit thriving. I struggled between the 3 and 4 stars. Yes the book was GOOD, very good. The writing is exquisite. Sometimes he goes on and on about descriptions that I could care a little less about and I had far less interest in the politics of Afghanistan than I did in the characters in the story so those parts dragged on a bit but still, the story moved forward and kept me hoping against hope that there were be an ounce of happiness reserved for at least one character ..... If you want to enter the dark, depressing, and lonesome world of the women in the Islamic regimes such as Iran or Afghanistan, go on and read this .... it will give you more than you bargain for! And remember, this work of fiction might as well be fact. These things do happen to the women in that world all the time.

Much as in THE KITE RUNNER, A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS occasionally suffers from some fairly "high-schoolish" prose and sometimes the plot twists stretch my willingness to suspend disbelief. (Stretch...not break.) KITE RUNNER has one gigantic leap like this in its final third, and so does A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS. I mention these items right up front, because the amount of praise I'd want to heap on this book overall so overwhelms any criticism, I want to make sure everyone understands that Hosseini is not the greatest writer ever. He is, however, a fervent storyteller and deeply immersed in the societies and characters he explores. There is no doubting his commitment to telling a great story and drawing you in. His work is very cinematic (I mean that as a good thing here) because it constantly hurtles forward. The plot moves briskly, but the growth of the characters is just as snappy. In my adult life, I find that I don't have as much time as I'd like to read for pleasure. Often, my reading comes in bed at night, and I fall asleep much sooner than I'd like. Once in awhile, when on an airplane, I'll get to read a bit more...but even then, I drift off or get distracted. Well, this summer, I was on a 4 hour flight, and I read more than half this book in that one sitting, never once tempted to set it aside and rest my eyes. It just blazed ahead and I was fully immersed. Hosseini revisits familiar territory (Afghanistan) but where KITE RUNNER focused on a primarily male experience, and also spent a lot of time in the United States...SUN stays almost entirely in this beleaguered nation, and is viewed through the eyes of two very different and VERY fascinating women. The turns that their lives take are Hosseini's way not only of showing the social evolution (and de-evolution) over the last few decades in Afghanistan, but the political and religious upheavals as well. In the hands of a less-skilled storyteller, it would seem like a dusty and not very clever device. ("Oh look, now that the communists have taken over, let's send one of the characters to a communist run school so we can hear how the Russians did things.") And while intellectually I understand that this is basically what the author is doing...his pacing, his beautifully imagined characters and his obvious love for the nation make the narrative, the "fiction", so very compelling. The book is full of death and sadness. Many events occur which are horrific and not the least bit pleasant for the reader. Yet in the end, it is an amazingly uplifting book. A "happy" ending? I supposed it kinda is...but it is really bittersweet. I closed the book, grateful to have read it...and the best sign of all...wishing I could follow the characters some more. I highly recommend the book, despite the flaws. Also, I think the book could be read and enjoyed by a teen audience as well...much like KITE RUNNER, I believe it could be an important and inspiring book for young people. It would warrant a PG-13 rating, for sure...but the mildly scandalous moments are more than made up by so many uplifting, informative or transporting passages.

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time so good I followed with Kite Runner it’s even better ! Written deep moving and beautiful! Loved both !

J’ai adoré ce livre, très émotionnel

6⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What an absolute gut-wrenching page-turner!! I'm still reeling from its emotional impact. This book is a rollercoaster of emotions, taking you from heart-wrenching sorrow to hopeful resilience. It’s heartbreaking, infuriating, and hopeful all at the same time. He gave such a vivid portrayal of Afghanistan’s tumultuous history and provided a stark backdrop for these womens stories, so raw and real, it’s hard not to feel their pain.The strength and courage they exhibit in the face of adversity is truly awe-inspiring. If you're looking for a book that will make you feel a whole range of emotions, this is it.

I read The kite Runner and then thought to buy this book...it's very well written,the depiction of historical and story to keep reader occupied...... I am not much of reader but at one point I felt like details became vague and story started to feel like one sided,specially when Laila gets introduced in story......overall good read....

It was for an English assignment gurl when I tell you this was the first school book I read in less than a week. It was that good like so entertaining since something was always occurring. So beautifully written and made. The storyline the characters all amazing

My favorite book.