Khaled Hoseini
Riverhead Books
2007
Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she found it at a Little Free Library near where she lives, and she had heard of the author. It took her a long time to get around to reading this; she's not sure why, but when she read it, she was glad she finally did. It's worth waiting for.
This novel is about two women in Afghanistan, and thirty years that pass in that country. Mariam is a young girl who lives with her mother, and is an illegitimate child of a rich man. Her father comes to visit her every week, and gives them a little money. She abandons her mother one day to see her father, and her mother ends up committing suicide. Her father gives her away to a man who is in his forties who lives far away in Kabul. She is happy for a brief time, that ends when she does not have children.
Laila is a young girl who lives in the same neighborhood as Miriam, but initially they do not communicate. She has a friend, Tariq, with one leg, who she falls in love with. Her father used to be a teacher, and he teaches her to appreciate beauty and literature. Her family dies in a bombing, and she ends up homeless. Rasheed, Mariam's husband, finds her and takes her in, and asks her to marry him. She does not want to, but she is pregnant with Tariq's child, and she knows she won't be safe on her own. Mariam hates her at first, but they become friends.
Ms. Hen was horrified at the conditions in which these women live. They have no rights, and no education, and have no choices at all. Mariam makes the ultimate sacrifice with her life, which should not have happened. Ms. Hen doesn't remember the last time she burst out crying when she read a novel. This novel made her cry.
Ms. Hen could say, "I'm glad I don't live in Afghanistan," but that's not enough because there are people who live there, and they suffer. She doesn't understand how men can be such animals, but she knows that it's true. A little power can go to someone's head, and make them do crazy things.
Lots of chickens appear in this novel, which always pleases Ms. Hen. Laila and Mariam are at an orphanage to find someone to take care of Aziza, Laila's daughter, because they don't have enough money for food, when the man who runs the center says, " 'Ah, there, I've made you laugh little hamshira. That's usually the hard part. I was worried there for a while. I thought I'd have to cluck like a chicken or bray like a donkey. But, there you are. And so lovely you are.' " Laila is troubled that she has to put Aziza in an orphanage, but she finds a way to laugh.
Ms. Hen thinks this is an important novel because it portrays the friendship of two women in an unlikely situation. It comes to Mariam when she is about to die that her life has not been wasted because she loved Laila and Aziza, and that is where Ms. Hen got emotional. The world can be messed up, but if people find love, their lives are worthwhile. It can be any type of love. Ms. Hen loves this book, among other things, and she appreciates what she has.
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