A really enlightening read

Hosseini is excellent at portraying the life of a foreign land, what it's like to live there, how things look, what people eat, what the customs are, but I think there are some built-in limits because it's fiction. He just can't satisy our every curiosity because he's too busy telling a story. I found "The Places in Between" to be a very enlightening nonfiction portrayal of Afghanistan, but there are almost no women in it. After reading the NPR story about the "controversy" over "The Bookseller of Kabul" by the female journalist Asne Seierstad, I ordered it and am almost finished. It's truly phenomenal. Seierstad lived with a family in Kabul and wrote an exceptionally detailed account of what their everyday life is like: what they eat, how they eat (with their right hands, segregated by sex), what people think about, what they wear, what it's like, layer by layer, to wear a burka, to walk in one, how burkas are hot and stinky and trap Kabul's famous dust, how you read body language in one, how men buy brides, how family hiearchies work, how they groom themselves, how sexual relations work in and outside of marriage, how they pray and travel, everything. It's just absolutely fascinating, in addition to being well written, and I found it addressed a lot of questions I had while reading Hosseini and Stewart.

East and West

I think all of us — most recently Amy in the first comment on the last post — referred to an idea or notion or mindset being Western. What do you think Hosseini's view is on Western/non-Western? Does he have a coherent idea of humanism that transcends specific cultures? I had the impression that he looked at his homeland with a kind of hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner attitude.

Wives

The two noblest men in the book — Laila's dad and Tariq's dad — each had only one wife. Do you think this was a mere matter of money (they couldn't afford more), or was Hosseini saying something about polygamy? (It's also impossible to believe that Tariq would ever take another wife, isn't it?).

a woman's voice

Throughout the book I struggled with Hosseini's development of his characters. At times they all ran together and spoke with one "voice" instead of having unique speech, thought or emotional patterns.

Did you feel he did a good job of accurately portraying the emotional lives of teenage girls? Mariam was married at 15, Laila at 14, yet to me they sounded the same throughout the book, even when they were much older women. What did he do to make them seem like the immature teenagers they were?

Legitimacy

At her excecution, Mariam thinks to herself
"It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings." (p329)

What made her legitimate in the end? (Hosseini suggests loving and being loved) and did her marytrdom confirm that or erode it?

In what way were her struggles in life different from Laila's because she was harami? Did they play a role in the vast differences between their two endings?

Losing ground

In a way the stories of Mariam and Laila were driven more by what they lost (or never had) rather than what they gained. Considering the many scenes of death and grief (Nana's suicide, Ahmend and Noor's martyrdom, Tariq's "death", Lilia's parents, etc.) where did you feel the loss most powerfully on behalf of the characters? What made this so?

Impressions

I hope you enjoyed "A Thousand Splendid Suns." Shall we begin our discussion?
I have to admit it was fun reading and thinking of questions for the two of you, I'm interested to hear what you have to say.

First off, in picking the book we all seemed excited to "travel" to Afghanistan. Did you feel Hosseini managed to transport us there? What helped you feel you were in another culture? What of that was exciting? What was difficult?

War and Peace; what is it good for?

Amy Preacher (I hope I can still call you that even though the Big Ride is over and there's no other Amy here), I've decided to dedicate a part of this winter to finally reading "War and Peace." I think I've started other winters with this grand intention, but the thing that decided me was all this hullaballo about the new translation (I'll read the long version) and the fact that you've read it (so I have someone to discuss it with) and the fact that I'm reading this riveting novel ("The Emperor's Children," a New York comedy of manners) that makes all sorts of fascinating and intriguing allusions to W&P, making much especially of this Pierre/Natasha dichotomy. I have to know what this is all about! Wish me luck.