This book became popular a really long time ago, but...

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I know, how behind the times am I? My family lent me "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (by Khaled Hosseini, the author of "The Kite Runner") about a year ago, and I just now read it. Anyway, for those of you who don't know, this book follows two characters, Mariam and Laila, who live in Afghanistan. It begins when the Soviets are in power and ends after the Taliban is gone, so it covers a pretty large stretch of time. I think some books that take place over long periods can get really slow and boring, but this book wasn't like that at all. In fact, I had to stop myself from flipping ahead to see how certain situations would turn out. The pacing and style of the book were very similar to "Kite Runner," but I liked this one better. Part of that could be due to the fact that it was easier for me to relate to the female characters.

One interesting thing about this book is that although by the end the time period is pretty close to the present, it still seems like it's happening such a long time ago, because living situations in Afghanistan are so different from the U.S. Obviously, I knew customs were different in Afghanistan, but I don't know if I ever fully considered how different they were so recently.

I expected this book to be completely depressing. It wasn't. It was sad, certainly, heartbreaking in places. However, depressing, to me, equals painful to pick up and read, and this book wasn't. I found myself loving and rooting for the characters, and in the end, there is a bit of hope. 8.5 pretzel bites!

KAY