Kite Runner/ Thousand Splendid Suns

Okay...well, I guess that it is my turn to do a book review. I am going to do one on two different books, Thousand Splendid Suns and Kite Runner, just because they are by the same author Khaled Hosseini and I also read them one right after the other. I read these books a couple of months ago and I really liked them. Both books are heart breaking and had my crying at several different parts of the story so if you are in the mood for a tear jerker these are your books. But I must give warning that if you are a gentle reader then these books are probably not for the faint hearted.

I am going to start with the Kite Runner just because that is the one that I read first. This book is about a story of 2 boys, Amir a wealthy son of a businessman in Kabul and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. The boys are inseparable they live and grow up together. They spend most of their days running kites and telling stories until a tragic childhood event takes place changing their relationship forever. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, this childhood incident stays with Amir and haunts him still as a grown man, even when he is married and has established himself a life in America as a successful novelist. Because of these demons that haunt Amir you find the twist and turns in the story to be so real that you forget that you are reading a novel. You are on this quest of forgiveness with Amir as he finds himself back to his war-torn native town trying to find closure to his childhood choices that have greatly affected his adult life.

Now for Thousand Splendid Suns if I had to read one over again it would be this one. It is a story of two generations of characters, Miram and Lialia , the book spans from 30 years beginning with the Soviet invasion and ending with the overthrow of the Taliban. As they move from childhood to adults they are brought together by the tragic sweep of war, the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness, share and try to love the same husband who in return beats them both. It is very hard to not say much other than that or else I will end up spoiling the plot. My favorite books to read are books that teach you something along with a great story. This story is not just a great, although overwhelmingly sad, story, it is history lesson of Afghanistan's last thirty years -- as mentioned above from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban. You also learn how women had an appalling time living under the Taliban regime, which I sort of knew already but you have no idea how horrible the conditions really were. The childbirth section will fill you with horror!! The author really does such a great job with his stories and making them seem so real that after I was done reading it I was a little disturbed what I just read was fiction!!

I am going to stay away from the whole political discussion of these stories because you could easily get yourself in one. I just want to say that for me, these books help put it in perspective of why we are helping these people and the country of Afghanistan. Not only was there two great stories to go along with the books but I learned so much about the country and some of the history of Afghanistan itself. The beauty and violence of this country, the food and customs and smells of the city. The desolation of life and the loss of the country to madmen who are running it with only wealth in their mind and will go to the extreme of destroying a country and their own people to get it!!

If I had to give these books a rating I would give them both 4 high fives. I really and truly loved the stories and the history behind the stories at the end of the books you are so engrossed in them that you feel like hugging the books..... well....at least I did!!