by Khaled Hosseini
This
is the story of two Afghan women and what their lives have been like for the
last thirty years in their country: Afghanistan.
One
of them is Mariam, an illegitimate daughter of an affluent entrepreneur, born
in the Farsi western area of the country. She lives with her mother in a humble
shack in the outskirts of the city
of Herat. They are maintained by her father but kept away from his legitimate
family. In fact this illegitimacy, named harami
in Farsi, is a word that has scarred
her for life.
The
only treats she obtains from life, besides fishing in a nearby little stream, are the occasional visits from her father and from
her spiritual mentor, whom she is very fond of.
When
she is fifteen her mother dies and her father’s family force her to marry a forty-five
year old widower shoemaker from Kabul so, the day after this announcement she
has to leave with a complete stranger and even without being allowed for a farewell with her mentor Mullah
Faizullah.
Her
husband, Rasheed, turned out to be a narrow-minded, wicked person who, as
Mariam could not give him a baby, is going to cruelly embitter her life.
Leaving aside legal family matters, we can perfectly say that it is Rasheed who
is a real bastard.
The
other woman in this story is Laila, a Pashtun young girl from the neighbourhood
of Mariam and Rasheed in Kabul. She came from a middle class family with a certain
cultural level. In fact, her father is a teacher who encourages her to continue
her studies. She is a very lively, clever girl who has many friends and
specially a boy, Tariq, with whom she secretly daydreams about marrying him at
some point in the future.
The
whole story is set against the background of the recent Afghan history, with
all its wars and changes. It begins just before the Soviet invasion, when life elapsed like it used to be for long
before. However, there were significant differences between the rural and the
urban areas where society was much more open-minded and tolerant.
The Soviet
period meant a radical change at least for women. From then on they were
allowed and even encouraged to study, to teach, to be owners of their lives and
to chose what they wanted of life.
But then came the
tribal warlords who led the country to destruction. This is a long period of
starvation and struggle to survive the unrelenting shelling and the impunity of the Mujhaideen.
Eventually
the Taliban overcome the warlords and this is a change for the worse. They
enforce an ultra-religious regime which makes of women something similar to
animals, without any right or fairness. They lose all right and all sense of
justice, they even do not have what would be called a medical attention.
Throughout
all this period lots of people die and many more are rendered homeless or
refugees or become widows. It is due to this scenario that Laila reluctantly
ends up marrying Rasheed and living with him and Mariam.
I will not
continue revelling the plot of his
story because most of you may probably want to read this novel and, if you do
so, I hope you enjoy it.
To be honest I
must say that, from this book, I had expected the type of throwaway literature that can be found in a typical bestseller. They are usually written to entertain readers
with some well-known formulae but they fail in showing true characters and deep
feelings and emotions. Once you know the plot you can perfectly think there is
nothing beyond it.
But I was
totally wrong because what I have found is a deeply moving story, without cheap
stereotypes and it is beautifully written in a lyrical, almost poetic language
that makes you get involved in the lives of the characters.
It is obvious
that the author, Khaled Hosseini, has a complete awareness of his country’s reality
and recent history and shows them to us with much more richness and complexity
than a western mind could imagine. He has as well a deep knowledge of the
Afghan culture that goes really beyond the religious matters that permanently
shake the country.
But this
scenario is only a background where we can observe how many characters play
their roles and how they behave depending on the circumstances they live.
Generosity,
tolerance, abuse, impunity, cruelty, selfishness define many ways of how people
could react when the environment is absolutely hostile and this is the crux of
the story: how people are and how they react when everything around is not
precisely fair.
Finally,
I can tell you that I strongly recommend this novel for all the reasons before
mentioned and I am certain that you will not be indifferent to what happen with
the characters in this epic story of friendship and personal improvement.
Vocabulary:
Shack: a very simple and small building made from pieces of wood, metal
or other materials, (choza, casucha)
Scar v: to have or leave a
scar. Scarred for life: had a serious mental effect on her for the rest of her
life (marcado de por vida)
Farewell: when someone says goodbye (despedida)
Elapse v: If time elapses, it
goes past (transcurrir, discurrir)
Shell: to fire shell at something (bombardear)
Plot: the story of a book, film, play, etc
