A Thousand Splendid Suns

I just finished the last 12 pages of this novel at my desk after staying up til 1 last night reading (editor's note: I never do this anymore. No time). Read this book. You will probably hurl it against the wall on several occasions and find yourself weeping in the grocery store between chapters, but it is worth the agony. This is not a pretty book but a necessary one if we are to understand what is happening to women in Afghanistan. One of the themes introduced in the first chapter is endurance. It is difficult to fathom all that the female characters must endure while living in a society so steeped in violence. An argument this book makes is that violence is woven into the fabric of Afghanistan's culture; there is simply no escaping it. The country has survived for centuries and centuries this way, and it will continue to do so (hence the title A Thousand Splendid Suns). However, the other lesson in this book is that there is something worse than violence, and that is taking away someone's hope. A body can survive myriad brutalities but a soul cannot survive without hope.

I almost quit reading this book several times. Best to keep that great line from Lear in mind as you read this one: "The worst is not/So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'" Know that there are redemptive moments in this novel, and that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But it is a loooong tunnel.