A Thousand Splendid Suns

I think I'm going to have to dedicate a shelf to this genre and label it 'Bad Things Happen to Blameless Women' and on that shelf I'll put 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan', 'The Red Tent', 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and now 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'. I'm aware that bad things do indeed happen to blameless women but bad things happen to blameless men too and I don't see a whole host of supportive literature for that. It's not even as though women having a voice is such a new thing - we've been able to publish under our own names for quite some time now. And in that I think that perhaps that's what makes this book a little different to the others - the fact it was written by a man (as, indeed, was 'Memoirs'. Just don't get me started on that...). This appears to have been a conscious effort on his part to counter-balance the very masculine text that was 'The Kite Runner'. He writes women well by the simple method of letting them speak. This isn't bells'n'whistles writing - just voices from the dark.

And it's written very well although I am occasionally troubled by the tone. The text is at times horrific and somewhat relentless in its violence but I can't for the life of me work out its function. It's a novel so clearly it's purpose isn't to educate, as a piece of fiction it can't very well be to inform either and this leaves us entertainment. Well, I for one sure as hell ain't laughing. The violence endured by the women by their husband is in somewhat stark contrast to the muted grace - almost reverence - Miriam receives whilst waiting for her sticky end. Perhaps this is a reflection that in order to really be able to hate we need to love first (although it is highly questionable as to whether the husband is capable of such an emotion. Adore - yes - love? Not so much) and I also wonder if Hosseini (having spent nearly all of his formative years in the States) was cautious of labeling too heavily the Taliban as Irredeemably Bad Men. Perhaps he is understandably cautious of shouting judgments from across the waters.

I liked this book. It upset me - but as a mother - not as a citizen of the world. I think I'm going to have to accept that this is just a novel - nothing more. I'll find a way of coming to terms with it.