A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

[sirinrob]

i know from reading 'Palace walk' that there are degrees of adherence in Islam. the taliban view is very extreme, but even under less harsh regimes you still get men like Rasheed. Maybe it is more to do with unbalanced world views, just a thought.

[Cookie]

There are men who want to keep women down in any society and I think Rasheed would have been unpleasent whatever culture he was brought up in.

[Ooshie]

In what way do you mean unbalanced, sirinrob? It's an interesting thought, but I don't quite know what angle to approach the thought from to take it further!

[sirinrob]

By unbalanced I mean that the slightest change that occur within that world view is seen as a threat to that world view as the world view is rigid but with shaky foundations. The reaction tends to be to make the world view more rigid, rather than strengthening the foundations which would allow the world view to adopt changes more readily, without the fear of it collapsing.

 

Rasheed cannot tolerate any changes that he sees as a threat to his world view. The only way he seems to be able to cope with living is to live within a very rigid framework.

[Ooshie]

I see what you mean and agree, the only way that particular and extreme world view can be upheld is by oppression and violence.

 

I think that Cookie is most likely right when she says that Rasheed would probably have been unpleasant whatever culture he was brought up in, but the regime in place meant that there would not even have been social disapproval of his violence towards women at that time.

[sirinrob]

Yes cookie is right, as I know from experience that their are people with rigid world outlooks who do everything in their power to maintain the status quo, regardless of the pain and suffering they inflict on others.

[vodkafan]

I see what you mean rob, the capacity to "live and let live" is not in their mental toolbox.

it is not restricted to muslims though. I have talked to fundamentalist Christians from America at length and some of them are complete nutters. It is frightening. The ironic thing is that they think that they are diametrically opposed to islam and yet their world view is almost exactly the same when you go into it, eg women are being punished for Original Sin, AIDS is god's punishment to gays etc and all that. Oh and the US president has a direct hotline to God don't forget that.

[Maureen]

Today is the last day of this month's reading circle, although this thread will still remain open for any observations or thoughts about this month's book. I would like to thank everyone who took part, and hope you enjoyed the book and the discussion. Thanks!

[soso]

That is by far the most griping book I have ever read I mean I just love it and what was so amazing about it is that you can never predict the events at all and the ending was just so sad and really very realistic at the same time . Khaled Hosseini is a brilliant writer and a great story teller:)

[Maureen]

Soso, feel free to give your input to the questions we had during the RC.

[Maureen]

Yes, soon after Mariam got married she had a miscarriage.

 

 

[Tinatin]

it is an excellent book

[Maureen]

Tinatin, we would love to hear more of what you think about this book.

[chaliepud]

Yes, me too, I read it a few weeks ago and can't believe I'd left it on my TBR shelf for so long... I height I'd loved The Kite Runner but this was so much better, maybe because it was from a female perspective? It was almost nonfiction I learnt so much from it, over here, we think that watching the news teaches us about a country's suffering but it is not until an author puts what they have learnt into words that it really hits you as to how they really are suffering..

[azshohan]

Hi everybody, I am also a very big fan of Khaled Hosseini. I've been waiting for his new book sincee his last book published! Now I want to get  "And the Mountains Echoed". One has suggested me to buy a ebook from amazon store. That's okay but I also want it's hard copy . Do you know any source to get it?

[frankie]

Azshohan, I think Amazon would also provide hardback copies?