A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007)

This is the most difficult book I have read in a long time. There were times when I had to stop listening to it, as I couldn't take hearing about one more brutal beating. But these incredible Afghani women deserved me to hear their tale to the end, so I went back to the book. I just have to count my blessings if I have such a hard time reading or listening to this, while so many women are still living this type of nightmare.

Though Hosseini's Kite Runner was also a heavy book about the realities of Afghani life, it seemed lighter. There was more pre-war joy - as in the descriptions of the kite running contest. And a good portion of the book is set in the emigrant community in the United States. Not an easy life, but nothing compared to the constant hardships and brutality experienced by Mariam and Laila in A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Hosseini starts his tale of Afghanistan in the 1950's with Mariam's childhood. She ends up married off to an older man in Kabul, who asks her to wear the burka even before the Taliban insisted all women wear them. Later we meet free spirited Laila, who is almost broken by the consequences of the war. I don't want to go into details, as I'd like to leave the brutal incidents of their lives as much of a surprise to the next reader as they were to me.

I cringed every time the burka was mentioned, though I did see the advantage of it being a certain protection against a brutal outside world. One of the non-brutal scenes that most angered me was when Laila needed help with the birth of her second child. Only one hospital would still accept women, there were no supplies - like anesthesia for the operation, and the female doctor was expected to wear a burka while operating. I don't get it. How stupid and insecure can these guys get? Don't they realize they need the women to be healthy to provide for them, to bring into the world the next generation? I am also surprised by the resilience of the human body. That these women could still walk and function after being beaten so brutally so many times.

I don't think I will be handing this out as a Christmas gift. If someone really wants to read it, let them find their own path to this book.