A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini has written two books that I have read. 'The Kite Runner' was a heart warming story set around a boy growing up in Afghanistan. A well written, well told story that gave me a very different view of Afghanis and of life there than the one that is normally provided by the media.

I have just finished the second book "A Thousand Splendid Suns". Actually, I finished it very early on Saturday morning on a plane from Darwin to Brisbane.

This book may not have the depth of 'The Kite Runner" but it had a more powerful effect on me.

The story centres around two women. Mariam is an harami, or bastard. This is definitely not a term of endearment. She is caused to marry a man many years her senior when she is 15. It starts out better than you might expect but heads down the reasonably obvious path pretty quickly.

Laila joins the household some years later. The relationship between the two women has a very rocky beginning but grows.

All the while the misery that is recent Afghan politics swims around the household. The Soviets come almost as saviours and go. The mujahadeen arrive as saviours and fall into tribal disarray soon after with terrible results for the population. The Taliban arrive as saviours and, again, soon deliver a continuing disaster for most of the population.

Don't be concerned though that this is a heavy, political book. It is, but it doesn't feel like one. We are taken into the household. We are given an insight into the reality of life. It is tough in parts but by no means without hope and there is plenty of light and love.

I have been told - by someone smarter than me - that the concluding parts could seem a little contrived but I have exercised my right to disagree, just a little.

The characters were able to get under my skin. I felt for Mariam and could empathise with the hard headed decisions of Laila. I can't say that I really understood Rasheed but I could understand some of why he might be as he was. The weakness of Jalil is something with which we are all probably familiar as we are with the bitterness of Nana.

If you read it for no other reason than that you would like a good story then you wont be disappointed. If you want to put a human face to the decisions that refugees actually have to make you will enjoy it more.

And for the young bloke in the nearby seat on the flight from Darwin to Brisbane - that old bloke had tears running down his face because some things in life make you both angry and sad and deserve a tear or two.

Crook Foot

You should always look for the positives they say. Well my foot - and ankle - is bloody sore and I find it difficult to walk around too much. Can't get a boot on and this makes it less than safe to work on my building site (although I am not really sure why I should worry about a foot that is being such a nuisance.)

Read a book yesterday. I read a lot of books but, unfortunately rarely get a chance to read one all at once. The one I read yesterday is one that I didn't really want to finish - wanted to savour it - but one that I couldn't put down.

I am not normally inspired to read books by reviewers. This book "The Broken Shore" by Peter Temple was reviewed on the ABC Book Club program. They raved about it. I spotted it in a shop and bought it on spec. It is a beauty. The reviewers were right - and I should learn not to dismiss all reviewers as wankers.

I do enjoy crime novels and 'The Broken Shore" does fit into that category. It is a good crime novel. A better than average plot. Some good twists and excellent pace. But the crime is not the point with this book.

Peter Temple uses a technique that sometimes works well and it does in this case. He does not lead in with a detailed establishment of the scene, no obvious setting of the context and no detailed character development. Instead you move into the events with the characters and context being built as these events proceed.

But the events are quickly overtaken by the characters and the context. Temple describes the area, somewhere on the southern Victorian coast, in a way that you can feel, without actually spending too much time doing so. You meet his two dogs and you know them. His hero, Joe Cashin, is flawed and pretty much buggered, but you don't find out why until it comes up in the context of the story.

The story is like moving into an area and gradually getting to know the place and the people in it. There is a gradual process of revelation as there is in any new place. In this case we have the assistance of a bloke who has lived here before and can fill in some of the history.

An excellent book, whether or not you like crime novels.