A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

"A Thousand Splendid Suns"

I read this before 'Kite Runner' assuming the author, based on his reputation, had some high literary merit. Unfortunately he's written another mainstream novel that, like all the others, ends up being praised purely for the fact that it's intolerably depressing and as such masquerades as a book that deals with big issues.

Really it's a sob-story with miserable characters being pummelled with horrible experiences. Sometimes this highlights big issues and makes you think about the subject matter - unfortunately the author makes absolutely no attempt to describe the world of his characters, leaving you stranded and, at times, a little bored. 'Kite Runner', which I'm surprised I ever read following this uninspired attempt, seems to have drawn all its character from the author's own experiences. This one, about women (which the author obviously is not) in Afghanistan (which the author lived in for a few years before moving to the States, and presumably doesn't remember too well), feels pale and shallow, hoping that the plight of its characters is enough to drag it through the mediocre story.

Both main characters are shallow and practically indistinguishable, definable only by the experiences they have suffered. The one three dimensional character, the enforced husband, though nasty, turns out just to be another 2D evil character. The author seems to work only in absolutes and it ends up feeling like a bad journalistic story, as there is no flavour at all.

An annoying trait, one of a couple actually, is that the author translates all his foreign words for the readers. All the characters are speaking in their native tongue and have been translated for the book. So why does the author feel the need to constantly inject foreign words into the dialogue? Is it to hide the fact that, but for this, the story could be set in any damn country in the world? Even worse is that he has to then explain what these words mean in the most unnatural, unrealistic dialogue. A made-up example: "Pass me the 'naan', the bread". Assuming you don't know that naan is bread, this is useful for the English speaking reader, but totally stupid if you were to translate the whole sentence: "Pass me the bread, the bread". What, do they all have stutters? Irritating and just plain bad writing.

If you loved 'The Kite Runner' and are kind of simple, you'll probably really praise this unimaginative, stereotyping, unoriginal, overlong, repetitive, badly-written dross. Anyone else will regret wasting their time on it.

Some points for at least attempting to deal with serious issues, despite glossing over the history of the country and the motivation of the characters.

2.0 out of 5 stars