A man's heart is a wretched thing

reviewed
SHERIDAN GRISWOLD | Friday August 31, 2007 00:00

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the latest creation from the imaginative pen of Khaled Hosseini who gave the world The Kite Runner, a novel that was an international bestseller in 2005 (see Mmegi, April 22, 2005) and was published in 34 countries. Recently 35,000 Exclusive Books customers voted for the books they wanted people to read before they died. Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner came second (Lord of the Rings was first and Pride and Prejudice third).

 
The tremendous success of The Kite Runner presented a 'hard act to follow' for the novelist who was born in Kabul, but moved to California in 1980. The story of Amir, who grew up in Kabul with Hassan, the son of his father's childhood friend Ali, a Hazara (a minority like the San) ethnic Shi'a Muslims was brilliantly told. Amir felt his father, Baba, hated him because Amir hated the national passion, Buzkashi tournaments. Its violence was terrifying and he got sick at the sight of death.

But Amir was mean to Hassan, his constant companion, playmate and his kite runner, who helped him win contests. The Kite Runner was a story that enthralled because of its constant shifts and revelations. Khaled Hosseini, following the success of his first novel, was made United States of America (US) envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Escaping the turmoil of Afghanistan has caused over the last 30 years eight million Afghan refugees to leave, of whom two million are in Pakistan.

 
The title - A Thousand Splendid Suns - is derived from a famous poem by Saeb-e Tabrizi written 400 years ago in Farsi. The story of two women and their struggles to survive in Afghanistan is told in four parts and 51 chapters, unnamed in the first parts, alternating between Mariam and Laila in the third part. The tale spans from 1964 when Mariam was five years old and her mother first called her 'harami' or bastard, as she was an illegitimate child, beyond the pale of normal Islamic society, through to Kabul in 2003 and the impact of the fall of the Taliban.

 
The story begins in the village of Gul Daman outside Herat, beneath the Safid-koh Mountains. Khaled Hosseini paints a vivid picture of rural life and Mariam and her mother Nana's place in it. As an unmarried mother Nana is like an outcast, but Mariam is nurtured by weekly visits from her father, Jalil Khan, who owns a cinema and other businesses in Herat. He tells her the stories of films and takes her fishing. Miriam is also helped by Mullah Faizullah who taught her to read, and to recite the five daily namaz prayers and from the Koran.

 
Miriam dreams of her father asking her to join his three wives and nine legitimate children at his mansion in Herat. She expects love and finds rejection. Her mother kept telling her, 'You're nothing'. At 15, Miriam fails her mother and is rejected by her father. After an arranged marriage to a shoemaker, Rasheed, a large, tarnished Pashtun 30 years her senior, whose wife has died and son drowned, Miriam moves to Kabul 650km east of Herat.

The first time she signed her name to a document in front of a mullah was on her marriage contract. The second was to come 27 years later when Miriam, an ancient 42, signs to release herself from this life. She achieves 'a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings' (page 329).

 
In Kabul, Miriam learns the advantages of wearing a burqa, 'A comforting one-way window. Inside it, she was an observer, buffered from the scrutinising eyes of strangers. She no longer worried that people knew with a single glance, all the shameful secrets of her past' (page 66). Her first miscarriage occurs in the public baths; then follow many more over the coming years. Miriam could not give Rasheed his son back. Rasheed becomes hard, cold, abusive and violent with her.

 
Part Two moves to 1987 and the story of Laila who is now nine years old. Her father, Babi, was a teacher who had lost his job because of his views and now works in a bakery. Babi would say things like: 'The only enemy an Afghan cannot defeat is himself.' Her mother was sickly and confined to her room following the deaths in the civil war of Laila's two older brothers who were fighting for the traditionalists.

Laila grew up literate and curious. Her best friend was Tariq, who lived a few houses away. In 1981 when she was three and Tariq five, he lost a leg to a landmine. It was Tariq's home nearby where she was welcome and where life had meaning.
In 1989 the Russians left Kabul and warlords fought for control of the country. The exodus of refugees escalated.

By 1992 Tariq and his family were leaving for Pakistan. Tariq wanted to marry Laila, and on the eve of his departure they consummated their affection, but she stayed behind. Then, 17 days later, Babi announced they were leaving for Peshawar. While packing he recited two lines of a poem to Kabul: 'One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs // Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls' (page 172).

Then at 15, carrying a parcel outside, Laila has her home and family destroyed behind her by a rocket. She is also pregnant from her coupling with Tariq before he left.
'It was Rasheed who found the girl, who dug her out from beneath the rubble.' He put Laila in Miriam's room and she soon recovered from her minor injuries. When Miriam realised Rasheed wanted Laila to be his second wife, she turned sour.

Then Laila learns that Mohammed Tariq Walizai and his family were in a lorry that was hit by a rocket and that Tariq died in a Peshawar hospital. Having lost Tariq, and her family, Laila accepts Rasheed's proposal to become his second wife. Her breasts were filling out and if she didn't she would give birth to a 'harami'.

 
Laila marries and believes she has fooled Rasheed into thinking the child is his. But a daughter is born whom she names Aziza. Only after the arrival of the daughter, and the co-wives share in Rasheed's continued abuse, does Miriam begin to change towards Laila. Out of adversity a unique friendship is born. But by early 1994, Laila became sure that Rasheed knows her daughter is not his.

She begins plotting their escape to Pakistan. Their attempt fails, because for women to travel they must be accompanied by a male relative. Rasheed retaliates against them with greater viciousness. The Taliban arrived in Kabul in September 1996, having taken Kandahar in October 1994. Then come the decrees confining women to the home - no work, no education for half the population. Laila finds she is pregnant again.

Should she abort? 'Her war was against Rasheed. The baby was blameless, and there had been enough killing already' (page 253). In September 1997, Zalmai was born at Rabia Balkhia Hospital, where there was chaos, and no medicines left; a caesarean had to be performed, without any anaesthesia, to free the baby. Rasheed now had a son again. But events conspired against the family when he lost his shop in a fire.

Laila and Miriam seem trapped in a vicious cycle of repression and violence at the hands of Rasheed. Domestic violence is never pretty and is hard to write about. Khaled Hosseini has spun another web, that at times is eloquent and melodramatic, even operatic, but there are sufficient unexpected events, all well described, to hold the reader's attention and interest. A Thousand Splendid Suns may never become as famous as his first novel - it will, though, remain a good one.

There is an 'abridged' (really just random, unnecessary paragraphs deleted, not rewritten) audio version read by Atossa Leoni from Simon and Schuster. There is also a free guide available for book clubs at <www.bloomsbury.com.khaledhosseini>.
e-mail sheridangriswold@yahoo.com