Josephanie A. (puppyfred) reviewed on + 17 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
My heart is still pounding, I'm hyperventilating and I'm wiping away tears.
The book doesn't have the kick in the first half or so that The Kite Runner has, but towards the middle, it picks up with the fire and passion. It leads the reader down a path that twists and turns in a gentle manner, and tweaks expectations into hairpins. The evil spouse, Rasheed, despite his shortcomings is not played out to be entirely despicable even though he is a brutal person. It is difficult to articulate, but Rasheed beats and brutalizes his wives, but at the same time, although a hateful and hated person, is somehow tolerated by the reader.
I enjoyed reading this novel. I encourage you to read it, but don't beg you to read it as I did The Kite Runner. I don't feel it is better or worse than The Kite Runner, it is merely different. Perhaps my difficulty with A Thousand Splendid Suns, is that unlike other authors such as Wally Lamb, who wrote "She's Come Undone" or Michael Dorris who wrote my favorite, "A Yellow Raft In Blue Water", Hosseini doesn't manage in the early pages to truly capture the female psyche in his writing. He does manage to capture it toward the middle of the book, at which point the pages start turning themselves. The Kite Runner was written entirely through the eyes of a man by a man, so therein lies the difference. The larger issue for me is now that I've finished both of Hosseini's works, my expectations in the quality of what I read has risen.
The book doesn't have the kick in the first half or so that The Kite Runner has, but towards the middle, it picks up with the fire and passion. It leads the reader down a path that twists and turns in a gentle manner, and tweaks expectations into hairpins. The evil spouse, Rasheed, despite his shortcomings is not played out to be entirely despicable even though he is a brutal person. It is difficult to articulate, but Rasheed beats and brutalizes his wives, but at the same time, although a hateful and hated person, is somehow tolerated by the reader.
I enjoyed reading this novel. I encourage you to read it, but don't beg you to read it as I did The Kite Runner. I don't feel it is better or worse than The Kite Runner, it is merely different. Perhaps my difficulty with A Thousand Splendid Suns, is that unlike other authors such as Wally Lamb, who wrote "She's Come Undone" or Michael Dorris who wrote my favorite, "A Yellow Raft In Blue Water", Hosseini doesn't manage in the early pages to truly capture the female psyche in his writing. He does manage to capture it toward the middle of the book, at which point the pages start turning themselves. The Kite Runner was written entirely through the eyes of a man by a man, so therein lies the difference. The larger issue for me is now that I've finished both of Hosseini's works, my expectations in the quality of what I read has risen.
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