So, our very first book was...
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
I wished I could say I enjoyed this book but the story was too disturbing ( I said I like happy endings and there wasn't one to be found.) However, I have thought of very little else since finishing the book. The story has stayed with me.
Before you blog you may wish to go the the Reading Group Guides Link and find the reading group guide for A Thousand Splendid Suns.
It has some very helpful in depth questions to get you pondering!
As I have said earlier, I didn't realize this was contemporary novel and once I did, I had to keep reminding myself of that because the events in the book kept making me think it was a civilization of long ago. I couldn't grasp those disturbing events in a contemporary world of my understanding and I realize how little I understand that culture or religion.
Mariam's entire life as portrayed in the book just broke my heart...it is like her mother created a self fulfilling prophecy when she said "Women like us. We endure. It's all we have."
How sad to leave that to your daughter as her legacy but really her mother had nothing else to give her.
So...what do you think?
4 comments:
Ok, ok…so I am two days late for the book club. Sorry!
Despite other members of the club, I actually enjoyed A Thousand Splendid Suns. Not because it was happy – because it wasn’t – and not because it made me feel better about the world – because it really didn’t. I enjoyed it because it was well written and in the end I can say that I was proud of the protagonists, Miriam and Laila. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book where a woman was stronger or had to endure more in one lifetime.
Neither Miriam nor Laila could say that they wasted their life with the awful, AWFUL Rasheed because that life brought them to each other. Miriam was able to love and be loved and Laila found the mother she always needed in her life. They gave each other purpose.
Like both Brenda and my mother, I have not and will not forget this book. It has educated me immensely on this region of the world…and what is sad is that this is not even history…this is the present, this is NOW!
Wow, I agree...and it was worth the two days wait and considering the events of our lives...completely understandable!
Okay. I got the book from Brenda on Friday and finished on Saturday. I could not put it down. I have read other books about women in the Middle East, so I was not too shocked by how they are treated in the book.
I enjoyed the quotes/scripture (not sure what called in Koran) from the Koran. Everything was about God's love for us and hope. It is obviously terrible how people pervert the Koran. Kind of like my neighbor trying to make me live Leviticus.
The tribal fighting is like what is going on with the different tribes of Iraq. I think there was some tribal fighting between the Native Americans...
One quote in the book said the only thing that could defeat an Afgan, was anther Afgan. How can you keep half the population down and survive?
Having just had my second c-section, the part with the no anesthesia surgery really freaked me out. I was a mess after with lots of drugs during and after for a week. Truly cannot imagine in 1996 having surgery with no pain medicine.
I admired the woman in the book and their strength. I would have been like Laila's mother and stayed in bed with the drapes closed. I stink at enduring.
During the Civil War, the North imprisoned Southern Women on trumped up charges trying to draw the men out. A similar situation about the unfairness of a government towards women.
Thank you, Ronda, for starting the book club. Hopefully, I shall be ready on time with the Bee book.
Thanks, Karyn...The Secret Life of Bees was for me one of the best books I have ever read. I loved it! Can't wait.
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