For the first semester, I decided to read Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns". "A Thousand Splendid Suns" follows the story of two middle Eastern women who, in a series of unfortunate events, get stuck with a man who is both verbally and physically abusive while also being stuck in a country riddled with war and destruction. The first woman, named Mariam, was an illegitimate child of a rich man named Jalil. Because of this, she had to live with her mom, who was also verbally abusive, at a place that is cut off from the rest of the town. Having had enough of her mother's manipulation, she decides to visit Jalil. Eventually, after her mother's suicide, Jalil sends Mariam off to a person named Rasheed who had lost his son in the war. Laila, a girl who is significantly younger than Mariam, was also sent to Rasheed after her family got killed by a bomb.
As the story progresses from the time both Mariam and Laila meet up, I couldn't help but notice the overwhelming amount of very dramatic and negative events happening to both protaganists. However, it did make me realize that these types of situations can and have happened to a majority of people in the real world. The more the story develops, the more I find it interesting how all of it is realistic and how its so much more than a tragedy in a novel. This book is a great read for everyone as it helps people become more educated in a different culture while also providing examples of the destruction and costs of a war.
-Marc Pascual
Lowkey a spoiler:
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this book for an assignment back in 9th grade, and I enjoyed it. The book opened my eyes to the tragedies it is to live in a war-ridden country. From the constant bombings to the high levels of crime in the neighborhoods, the author goes into depth in the novel where I as a reader feel connected to the characters. I was able to feel the sadness for one of the main characters when she wasn't able to conceive children, and her husband threw her aside for his other wife. Even though I haven't touched this book in years, with your book review I think I am going read this novel again.
I read this book and I ended up loving it so much that I read it a second time. I don't know just something about this book helped open my eyes to a whole different world than what I have experienced myself. I guess I never really thought that any of it could be real, but this book brought things to my attention that I never would have thought really existed.
ReplyDeleteI would very much like to read this book and have a grasp of what it is actually like to feel all the emotions the characters did. I personally like books with emotions which makes me understand more of the concept of the book and feel the same emotions the characters did. I think it's important to read books about different places and real life tragedies than always having an happy ending because life is not promised to end happy.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read this book because it seems similar to the book I have read during the first semester which was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I feel I can have a connection to this book because it seems it has a lot of emotion and heartache. I would love to read this book to learn more about differentiations of cultures and war.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds crazy and i'm actually interested in reading it. I think its cool because we always hear stuff on the news about war in the middle east. However we don't know how it is ourselves. It seems interesting to be able to read a POV of two girls living in that environment.
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