A Cultural Necessity

Native Afghan Khaled Hosseini is renowned for his fictional representations of the struggles that his people faced in the midst of the Taliban takeover, most famously in his New York Times bestselling novel The Kite Runner.

Although Hosseini’s family was fortunate enough to escape Afghanistan prior to the take- over and Hosseini himself didn’t see his home country for twenty-seven years after that, the author does his part by way of three novels to ensure that the history and plight of his people does not lie forgotten in the dust.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is Hosseini’s second novel. Like the rest of his work, the setting is Afghanistan before and during the invasion of the Taliban.

The story is delivered in three major parts and is told through the eyes of characters in two different generations.

The first part of the novel follows Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man and a maid. The second portion follows Laila, a bright young thing with high hopes and a supportive family.

The novel’s third and most crucial part combines the first two and brings together the viewpoints of Laila and Mariam. Hosseini is able to combine two characters who are radically different in age, background, and motive so flawlessly that it makes them appear to be destined to be together.

This novel was well-written and impossible to put down. The pages seemed to turn themselves and the stories of Laila and Mariam came together beautifully, without appear- ing forced or overly dramatic. Mariam and Laila were not portrayed as “perfect” characters. Hosseini embraced the im- perfect human nature so seam- lessly that one could venture to say that the characters were real people that Hosseini had encountered in his life.

The story flowed and twisted itself into an experience that will remain at the forefront of the reader’s mind for days after closing the cover for the final time. Regardless of the writing expertise displayed in A Thousand Splendid Suns, this novel is not simply “a good read.” This story is a cultural necessity, and not only for Afghans to understand their own heritage and respect where they are today.

This novel should be read by people of all cultures, but especially Americans. As a rule, Americans have a subliminal prejudice towards people of Middle Eastern descent after September 11, 2001.

This novel obliterates the stereotypes people have that Middle Eastern people are savage extremists who wouldsooner murder a person than acknowledgthem.

This novel shows the reader that the Afghans were just as blind sided by the brutality of the Taliban as the rest of the world. Hosseini depicts the way native Afghans were abused and manipulated by the people who had promised to care and provide for them.

Hosseini wrote his novels as a way to pay homage to the sufferings of his people and to ensure that such a crucial period in his nation’s history didn’t wither out of existence. That much is obvious.

However, there is more to it than just that. Hosseini wants the world to see how his people were treated. He wants the reader to know the suffering they endured. He wanted to show the world that the Middle East is not just terrorists and Taliban regimes. He wanted the world to see that the Afghans were only trying to provide for themselves and their families and were the most affected by the Taliban’s evil.

Perhaps most crucially, Hos- seini wanted to convey a notion that is applicable to any culture on any continent in the world; the loudest voice is not neces- sarily the voice of the people.