A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author of The Kite Runner

salam,

it takes a few days and nights just to finish reading this 419 pages novel. i'm not only reading but digesting each single words in it. from cover to cover. not only once i read but a few times. weeping silently. my mind keeps asking a few unfamiliar questions. why? unity?independent? easy to say but difficult to achieve. war? why people choose to have war?why they choose to kill the innocent lives. where's their sympathy?

this story is actually a tale by khaled housseini. Based on a real situation but the characters build in the plot of the story are not real. the settings too. his skills in writing wins my heart and other readers outside there.that makes me admire him even more than yesterday. i start reading from the first page not from the last page and i do not even do any research on him before reading his novels. His work is superb and it reaches beyond my expectation. If let say i decide not to read the few final pages of his book, i might don't even know that this story in this novel is actually a tale based on the real problem in Afghanistan.

Mariam. a harami (out of wed lock baby, lady and adult). her mind was bounded by her nana, a traditional minded woman. she grew up to be a traditional minded lady who lived in a rural area in Afghanistan. she was as young as 15 years old when she was forced to get married to Rasheed, a middle age man.

Laila, a young lady. second wife to Rasheed. an urban lady. againts the gov law. born in an educated family. her father loved education and hated stereotyped community. he wanted to give his best to his daughter. for him, gender was nothing when it came to education and he believed on the power of education. at times, he taught Laila by himself especially when the situation's around was getting worse due to war.

Rasheed,  a wicked husband sometimes.For him, women were made for men and their place were only at home. Women were idiot like a bird to him. He could do anything to his wives. Women had no power to speak out and even to stand up for their rights. Their mouth were glued by the patriarchal power. Their action and each of their movement must be with their husband. even when he decided to get married to his second wifre, Mariam could say and do nothing except trying to accept. Whatever things that happened to her, she accepted it as fate while fate and men did not meet and mixed at that time. well, men were powerful. They could challenge their fate. Not having children, they would find another women. Not having any girls from their first wife, soon, they would find the second.

see, i'm not good at commenting or summarising things that i read. thus, i decide to help you identifying the main characters. The author provides a few questions by the end of his novel. it's maybe for us, his loyal readers to answer, refresh, digest and extract out the moral values inside this story. suitable for discussion as the plot is clearly plotted. It has its exposition and ending of course. no one will read a novel without except for story telling session. =).

In terms of vocabulary, good for a newbie like me. if i could understand without referring to dictionary, others might could as well.

In terms of its censored lines or paragraphs. this one is a must in whatever novel as the author is actually trying to bring us into the real situation. but the censored is not as bad as in any romance novel and  if i have a chance to teach in any college (futuristic ok), i'll suggest them to read this novel and analysed it and i'll make them present their thoughts in words in front of me.soon to be "a wicked for good teacher".

i will use a flower paper for petal
And write you the sweetest letter
You are the sultan of my heart
the sultan of my heart

till then,salam