“I have to disagree with most (all?) of Shelfari's good readers on Khalid Hosseini's "Twenty Thousand Splendid Suns." It is a good book as a graphic depiction of the terrible brutality that has gripped Afghanistan off and on over the past thirty years, and of the treatment of women which , if as universal as Hosseini makes it with his two main characters, is parallel to the seventh circle of hellfire depicted by Dante--a medieval hell existing in the modern world of Islamic and Afghanistani culture. So far very "good for us.".But beyond that, it is not as good a literary work as The Kite Runner--
The action is too predicrtable and the characters, though well drawn, suffer from that predictability.. Hosseini is too good a talent not to develop the real sense of beauty and variety in human person ality and dexperience that he gives us only moments of ( that is, friendship, deepy felt motherhood, true feeling for what ought to be one's feelings of patriotism for what ought to be a great and ancient nation.) Great Literature gives us a deepened sense of the human possble not so overwhelmed by the destructively terrible. I think The Kite Runner, does that better. I hope there is more to come in that direction from this gifted writer not so constrained by the narrow focus of "A Thousand Splendid Suns. "”
bookmac wrote this review Saturday, October 13, 2007.
(
reply |
permalink )
