ANA Book Club?

[sgerrard]

I can't wait any longer, I have to post, and it must be Sunday on the East coast, anyway.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the best book we have read so far. I also think it is better than Kite Runner. The writing is outstanding, and the story is truly moving. It is the first book I have read in a long time that actually welled up some emotion in me - not actual weeping, but definitely welling up. I was cruising along to the finish, and the letter from Jahil to Mariam got me. Then the last line of the book did it again. Hosseini's writing is such a pleasure to read, I just want more and more.

Okay, enough gushing, let the discussion begin.

Steve

[ppearl214]

I can't wait any longer, I have to post, and it must be Sunday on the East coast, anyway.

I do confirm that it is now, indeed, Sunday on the "Best Coast".... prooceed!
*giggles*

[leapyrtwins]

Steve -

glad to hear this book was the greatest.  I'm still reading - and haven't gotten too far - I'm on about page 45 - so needless to say I won't be joining the discussion any time soon.  I'm hoping to spend many hours today reading, but I think my kids will have other plans for me 

I really like the book so far and if nothing else, I'll read the discussion comments after I'm finished.

Jan

[Soundy]

The book was good and an eye opener... for me it brought up some strong feelings of a way of life
in parts of the south that goes on in a similar way , but to a lesser degree ...

I have tried to think of an opening question for discussion but letting personal experiences and observations
get in the way... so will wait for someone to toss out one first

[JulieE]

Well, I think Mary tossed out the first question last week:

Just wanted to say I thought the book was very good. It REALLY makes me appreciate living in this country. I found it amazing the author was able to portray the emotons of the women so well. What did others think about the story going between the 2 women. At the beginning I was wondering but I thought they laced together so well and believably.

I have to agree on how fortunate we are born into a different culture, although the authors point is that there has/is/will be beauty in that culture, and I would be wrong to generalize because arranged marriages happen in many cultures, but the right to choose among many things (especially a mate) should not be taken for granted - and it is.
I have to say I teared up when Steve did, and the point about Jalil's letter is one of the few points you could see the man's (author's) perspective come out as opposed to a women's. 
Jules

[cindyj]

I don't have much time right now, will try to get back later, but what a GREAT book.  Yes, the author's writing was superb and the story line did bring out so many emotions.  I really liked the eventual weaving of the stories of the two main characters - it was all so tragic and touching and beautifully told.  It was great to see things from the perspective of people who were not the fanatics that we so often read about, but were people with views and dreams and desires quite similar to our own that were forced into lives that we can not fathom. 

(And, yes, Debbi, I can see where the burka could come in handy on a bad hair day, etc ) Though, seriously, it was interesting how both of them thought the burka was somewhat of a comfort...

So glad this book was chosen - thanks to this club, I am reading books that I would normally not pick up to read...expanding my horizons...hope to be back later.

Cindy

[Debbi]

Steve - couldn't agree MORE with you!  Definitely better than Kite Runner (which, BTW, I thought was marvelous).  The despair and hope that these women endured was so touching.  It made me realize, again, how much the women in Afghanistand have endured. 

I thought Miriam's character was so complex and loved following her from a child craving her father's approval to a woman totally in love with her co-wife's baby.  The bond that she and Laila formed speaks volumes about friendship and survival.  I also loved the way the author interwove the lives of these two women before and after they were forced into a communal mariage.

what an amazing story.  I can't wait for his next book!

Debbi

[JulieE]

Well, I suspect that many of you were watching the olympics finale, but Jimmy and some 20 year old British pop star?!  Sent me over the top, so I came up to see if anyone else saw a little Gone With the Wind in the book?  I'm wary of setting that (women as the weaker, but more emotional sex) as an archetype.  Despite that Harlequin moment, I loved the book.  I haven't read Kite Runner, but plan to get it.
Goodnight,
Julie

[JulieE]

One of the more revealing parts to me was the part when Miriam was at trial and the older of the three inquired what would he say when addressed by God that (the crime) wasn't for him to forgive.  I find it interesting that if I were sitting in that seat, approaching The End, I would be afraid he'ld say it wasn't for me to judge.  Is that one of the differences from East to West and Christianity, or is it because I am the weaker more emotional sex?  Hello.  Anyone out there?   
Actually, here in Texas we have the "Yearning for Zion" calamity, which is a travesty on two levels: 1st we have the communal marriage thing, which everyone was able to ignore until you hear about 14 year olds being forced into marriage and sexual relationships.  Whoa!  Here in the US?  But then Texas went and took all the kids (even infants) away from the mothers.  Whoa!  Here in the US?  kinda makes you go hmmm...

[sgerrard]

I don't know enough about the theology of Islam to say whether "judge not, lest ye be judged" would apply, so I will go back to the first question raised by Julie. At first I didn't even remember Laila slapping Tariq; then I found it, in the early scene where Tariq tells her he is leaving the next day. It didn't strike me at the time as anything unusual, just an expression of frustration. If I were to take it as representing a culture, I would think it spoke more about Afghan culture than American culture. They seem to be less inhibited about expressing themselves physically, you might say.

It does seem that in Texas, and in Afghanistan, the "cure" is as bad as the disease. Far better not to arrange marriages for 14 year olds in the first place - or at any age, for that matter.

I do agree that Jimmy and the pop star was not a success.

Steve

[JulieE]

Thank you Steve for the reply. 

It does seem that in Texas, and in Afghanistan, the "cure" is as bad as the disease. Far better not to arrange marriages for 14 year olds in the first place - or at any age, for that matter.

  True.
Goodnight,
Jules

[Kate B]

I found an interview with the author and found it interesting his best hope for readers.

What kind of response do you hope readers have to A Thousand Splendid Suns?

KH: Purely as a writer, I hope that readers discover in this novel the same things that I look for when I read fiction: a story that transports, characters who engage, and a sense of illumination, of having been transformed somehow by the experiences of the characters. I hope that readers respond to the emotions of this story, that despite vast cultural differences, they identify with Mariam and Laila and their dreams and ordinary hopes and day-to-day struggle to survive. As an Afghan, I would like readers to walk away with a sense of empathy for Afghans, and more specifically for Afghan women, on whom the effects of war and extremism have been devastating. I hope this novel brings depth, nuance, and emotional subtext to the familiar image of the burqa-clad woman walking down a dusty street.

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/thousand_splendid_suns2.asp

Kate

[leapyrtwins]

Okay, I think I'm lost here.  Can someone explain Jimmy and the pop star 

I understand it has something to with the the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, and not the book, but having missed it I need to be clued in.

As far as the book goes, I finished it about 30 minutes ago.

The biggest impression it left on me was the differences between how women and girls are treated here in the US as opposed to the way they were treated in the book.  As the parent of a 12 1/2 year old girl, I can't even imagine her being married and having a child at the young age of 14    Guess the best way I can sum it up is to say "God Bless America" - despite the recent happenings in Texas.

Jan

[Kate B]

Jalil (Miriam's father) was interesting in a way ---
In a time, where he could have just as easily walked away from Mariam, he made weekly visits.  What do you think his motivation was to maintain a relationship with Mariam?  Only then to turn his back on her...

One of the saddest moments in the book was when Mariam tested his love by attempting to visit him at home in Herat and then only to return home to find her mother committed suicide.  Then, making her marry Rasheed.

I, too, found the letter from Jalil at the end sad, but somewhat unbelievable that she never read the letter for all of those years.

Other thoughts?

Kate

[sgerrard]

Mariam never got the letter from Jahil. She refused to go out when he waited for her outside her house in Kabul; he went back to Herat to die, and left the box with Mullah Faizullah, who in turn left it with his son Hamza. It remained unopened until Hamza gave it to Laila at the end.

The sadness comes from realizing how a small change in events - Mariam going out to see her father by his car, or Jahil letting Mariam into his house in the first place when she tried to see him - might have changed so much for her. I think Jahil was torn between feeling love for Mariam, and feeling the pressure of his culture and status, and was not strong enough to do the right thing, until it was much too late.

Jan, try to picture an aged Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, and a young female pop star in a zany outfit, in the middle of a giant stadium, doing a high pitched rendition of "Whole Lotta Love", a song known more for its driving rhythm than the poetry of its lyrics. It did not work well.

Steve