Khaled Hosseini is at it again, this time with the equally gripping Thousand Splendid Suns! While all readers are still immersed in Amir’s difficult self-redemption in his debut novel “The Kite Runner” four years ago, Hosseini once again touched the nerves of the world with two ordinary Afghan women, no wonder Amazon ceded the top spot for the best-selling novel of 2007 to the Afghan-American doctor, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and 2006 UN Humanitarian Award recipient.
When accepting the award from the United Nations, Hosseini said, “Behind every dusty face there is a soul”, he is one of these souls, and he is willing to portray these unfortunate souls in his works . In his first novel, and the first in the whole of Afghanistan, written in English, “The Kite Runner” Hassan is Amir’s half-brother, and despite the gulf between master and servant, Hassan has The owner is loyal. In the winter kite competition of 1975, Amir defeated all the competitors, according to the rules, as long as he picked up the last kite that fell, he won; Hassan chased it for Amir, but was attacked by Assef on his way home. Intercepting and sodomizing, while Amir, who was watching from the sidelines, did not help because of cowardice, which became his biggest knot in the future. The winning Amir is naturally appreciated by his father, but at the same time has a huge estrangement with Hassan, until he returns to his hometown many years later to try to make up for his mistakes. In order to repent of his cowardice, Amir brought his son Sohrab to America after Hassan’s death. Hassan’s sincere affection for his master made Amir feel ashamed. The father-son family and master-servant friendship in the story once brought countless readers to tears.
In his new work, Hosseini continues to use the war-torn Afghanistan as a canvas to uncover the mystery of Afghanistan and tell a more real Afghanistan; however, this time, what the thick ink renders is no longer a struggle to explore self-redemption. It is the tragic and tragic life experience of two Afghan women born and raised in the past 30 years and the sisterhood of brotherhood.
”Mariam was five years old when she first heard the word ‘harami'”, so the story begins. Harami means illegitimate child in Farsi. At that time, she couldn’t really understand its connotation. All she thought was that she hoped that her father Ariel would come to visit her every Thursday, and her young heart was filled with fatherly love. of sunlight. God of fate arranged this, she was destined to become a marginal person who was neglected. Her mother, Nana, who was once Ariel’s maid and abandoned by him after being raped and pregnant, is a traditional woman who endured humiliation. But Mariam asked to go to school and went to see her father’s movie theater. Just after her 15th birthday, she went to Ariel’s mansion to find him secretly despite her mother’s persuasion to die. As a result, she closed the door and slept on the street all night. The next day he was sent home by his father. Just when he arrived at the door of the house, the driver “suddenly stopped in front of her, quickly came up to cover her eyes, and pushed her back”, it turned out that he found Nana who had been hanged! Even the driver of the wealthy businessman is so caring and considerate to Mariam, which warms the hearts of readers a lot.
Mariam was taken into the house by her father, still immersed in the grief and self-blame of losing her mother, Nana’s words could not stop: “I am everything to you in this world, Mariam! Once I am gone, you will be There’s nothing left, you’re nothing.” Although Ariel had a good impression of this illegitimate daughter, he was persuaded by his three wives, and a week later, he couldn’t wait to marry her to a middle-aged man in Kabul, the capital. Shoemaker Rashid. Rasheed’s ex-wife and son died one after another. He was eager to beg for a child. At first, he was more considerate to Mariam and encouraged her to take a bath in a public bathroom. 15-year-old Mariam put on the traditional Afghan women’s clothing – burka, the real housewife life began immediately: all kinds of housework naturally fell on her head. However, she experienced six miscarriages in four years, which finally made her unable to bear children. Her situation at home became worse and worse, and she was frequently treated coldly and violently by her husband. The pressure of the family and society made her lose the idea of resistance. Her husband’s beatings were carried out in a “programmed and habitual manner. There were no curses, no shouts, no pleadings, and no unexpected screams. The only thing left was orderly. Rational beating and being beaten.” The little girl who was quite rebellious at the beginning eventually became a submissive lamb like her mother, who was allowed to be slaughtered by men.
When Mariam was 19 years old, Laila was born in a neighbor’s house, into an intellectual family, her father was a university professor. Under the influence of her father, Laila learns knowledge and aspires to be a useful person to her motherland. At the same time, she also deeply loves her childhood sweetheart Tariq. The battle took the lives of her two brothers, and then her lover. In order to avoid the war, Tariq was leaving her, and the news was like a bolt from the blue. 14-year-old Laila “covered her face with her hands, and a wave of fear came to her heart,” but she was strong “to swear not to say goodbye and leave quietly. She was leaning against the door, shaking all over, covering her stomach with one arm and covering her mouth with the other,” until “the uneven footsteps of her lover could not be heard”. Such a separation of life and death may only be encountered in a war-torn country like Afghanistan. More than ten days after Tariq left, Laila was injured by a rocket in the fire, both her parents were killed, and she was adopted by the kind Mariam couple; the two heroines officially met, and later Rashid married Laila as Wife, they are on the same stage.
Hosseini’s account has some shadow of Faulkner, such as the first few chapters of the second part of the novel, which starts with 9-year-old Laila, describes Yariel’s recent situation through her eyes several times, and finally ends this part. At the time, he succeeded in directing the reader’s attention to Mariam; after Laila was shot, a few vague figures flashed in front of him in a trance, and Hosseini’s technique was easily reminiscent of Faulkner’s Quinn. Ding’s delirious scene after a fight with a partner; when Rasheed learns of Laila’s ex-lover Tariq visiting, the narrative crosses between Rasheed’s questioning of his son and Tariq’s bitter complaints Proceed as if two parallel trains – one for Fury, one for Tenderness – but eventually collide at Lyra’s intersection. As a result, the two women (especially Mariam) came to their senses, and the resistance to domestic violence finally erupted like a volcano – Mariam ended Rashid’s life with a shovel and took back her own from death. Sister Laila, and eventually took all the blame, leaving the hope of life to Laila and her two children. Even on her way to the execution ground, she still wanted to see Laila again, to hear her silver bell laughter, to sit with her for a cup of tea and some leftovers on a starry night,” however She left the last beautiful memories and visions of her life to her sister Laila. This may be the true meaning of the thousand suns in the title of the book. The two sisters reflect the thousands of disasters in Afghanistan. Serious female compatriots who were in danger of being beaten if they laughed in public during the Taliban period.
Seeing hope in desperation is exactly what Hosseini found in these two strong women. In the 30 years of war and chaos in Afghanistan, the author still leads us to see the flame of hope that can start a prairie fire – from the female doctor who secretly took off the burqa for surgery, to the old orphanage teacher who secretly taught girls knowledge, and then to Laila After hiding in Pakistan for a year, he resolutely chose to return to Afghanistan because “people say we need Kabul to be green again”. Aside from homesickness or nostalgia, Laila’s main concern is the whereabouts of Mariam, unlike Amir, who temporarily returned in The Kite Runner, who returned with her deep sisterhood and patriotism. to Afghanistan. This is also more brilliant than “The Kite Runner”: Amir brought Hassan’s son to the United States to repent of his cowardice in his childhood, hoping to realize their American dream there, which has become the accusation of many critics. It has become the root of the “American propaganda machine”. Of course, this American complex is still reflected in some of the characters in the new work.
Publishers Weekly said of “A Thousand Splendid Suns” that it was a masterpiece about “unforgivable times, impossible friendships, and indestructible love”. As Hosseini unravels the scars of the war in Afghanistan, readers are experiencing a kind of hellish adventure in Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”, and hopefully, like Beatrice, will guide people to a bright future, because there is a A thousand suns! Hosseini said in the postscript of the novel that the refugee crisis in Afghanistan is one of the most serious problems in the world. At most, 8 million people took refuge abroad, and 2 million refugees are still stranded in Pakistan. The UNHCR has done a lot for this. humanitarian work, but the situation remains dire. So he appealed to the whole world to help refugees like the characters in the novel! Hosseini’s humanitarianism has completely transcended national borders. He confidently told the world: “A Thousand Splendid Suns” uncovered a different kind of Afghan history, and the readers gained more than tears!
