But it's also an
incredibly powerful book. I won't go so far as to say I enjoyed it,
because enjoyment isn't exactly the right word for what I was
feeling... but of what I did feel, I felt a lot.
it was deeply affecting, wonderfully written, with a gripping story
and characters that kept me turning the page even as I winced at the
descriptions and wished the characters out of their current
situations.
Set in Afghanistan, in
time ranging from the 70s to the beginning of the Afghanistan war, it
follows the lives of two women. Mariam has grown up in a kolba
mud hut, the illegitimate child of a wealthy man. At the age of
fifteen she is married off to a much older man, and sent to Kabul,
far from her home. Laila was born in Kabul, to progressive parents.
She is bright and ambitious, and focused on schooling, intending to
study and to go to university. When Taliban rule changes everything
for women in Afghanistan, Mariam and Laila find themselves thrown
together, just trying to get by in a world where being a second-class
citizen would be a few steps up from where they are.
What struck me most
about this book is how well all the characters are developed. There
are people from many different backgrounds and realities, and each of
them felt intensely real: which made the events of the book all the
more difficult to handle. Mariam and Laila are completely different
women, but they are united because they are suffering under the same
oppression. In the whole cast, there are no heroes, just people,
living as real people do, some noble and some not. Even the
characters that I would class as 'villains' were well-rounded, and
complex, rather than just flat-out evil. Most importantly I believed
all of them. They felt real, they existed. The writing made it come
to life, in all its horrific detail.
As I said earlier, this
book is not for the faint-hearted. Laila's life starts out being
fairly happy-go-lucky, but the war quickly destroys everything she
knew and loved. Mariam was born into a hard life, and it doesn't get
easy at any point in the novel, from her secluded upbringing with her
strongly disillusioned mother, to life with her abusive husband.
The book is clearly
written by someone that feels very strongly about the issues laid out
in the book. It doesn't feel like it's deliberately set out to
educate foreigners, but it does feel incredibly well researched and
realised. Throughout the book and all the things that happen, there's
a strong undercurrent that the author finds it abhorrent, which makes
some of it slightly easier to stomach. Slightly.
And the writing... I
find it hard to define why one writer is good and another is not.
However, I can say that Hosseini's writing is very easy to follow. It
flowed well. The dialogue felt realistic (in that
dialogue-is-the-best-of-real-speech way). The chapters are short,
which meant that I got to the end of one instantly wanting to start
the next to find out what happens. The descriptions paint a broad
picture, leaving your mind to fill in the details. It was one of the
best written books I've read in a while.
I have my reservations
in recommending this book, because the content made it really hard to
read at times... but it was incredibly well written, and had a strong
message. It felt like the whole book was saying this is what it
was like, which I found both
challenging, interesting, compelling.
Of
course, this book has been out for some years now, so if you wanted
to, you've probably already read it... But if you haven't, and you do
intend to, then I recommend doing so when you're neither very happy
or very sad: the former and it will bring you down with a crunch, the
latter and you will be a weeping mess. It's best approached when
you're feeling grounded and resilient... and even then don't expect
to come out unscathed.
And
I'd recommend having a happier book on stand-by to read afterwards.
And possibly chocolate.
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