A Thousand Splendid Suns

Out of class novel

The book A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, shows the lives of two women living in extremely complicated times. The Novel is based in Afghanistan, around Herat and Kabul. A Thousand Splendid Suns touches on the topics of the Civil War that came to Afghanistan in the 90's, and very early marriages for women. Social status was also a very big deal around this time.
The two characters are so well developed, that I began to feel what they felt, I can see what they saw. Reading this book was very emotional for me.

The main character Mariam starts the story off with details about her parents, and her life. She only lives with her mother, because her father is a businessman and Mariam's mom is a housemaid. Social status was a make or break detail for wealthy men and women.

The next biggest character Laila tells her story later on in the book. Her "Babi" is a modern minded high school teacher, and her mother is depressed because her sons joined the mujahideen to fight The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Miriam and Laila meet later on in the book, and the story becomes very intense.

To me, this book is all about choices people make, and some issues people can't control. When I hear myself complaining about little things going wrong in my life, I sit back and think about Miriam and Laila's lives, and feel pretty pathetic afterwards. The challenges I face in day to day life are nothing like the challenges Miriam and Laila face.

Reading helps me to evaluate my life, and problems that seem to bother me, don't bother me as much after I read stories like this one.

I hope I can become as strong as these women throughout my years. They each take so much pain, and so many let downs but never give up hope. They keep their eyes on what is important, and they accomplish what needs to be done.

This book is simply an inspiration.