"Sometimes [Father] had Abdullah and Pari sit raptly before him...and told them stories his grandmother had passed on to him when he had been a boy, sending them off to lands populated by sultans and jinns and malevolent divs and wise dervishes. Other times, he made up stories. He made them up on the spot, his tales unmasking a capacity for imagination and dream that always surprised Abdullah. Father never felt more present to Abdullah, more vibrant, revealed, more truthful, than when he told his stories, as though the tales were pinholes into his opaque, inscrutable world."
-from the novel
This is the third novel by Hosseini I have read. He is truly an amazing storyteller! In fact the quote above could describe the author himself.
The setting is mostly Afghanistan but also Paris, San Francisco and a Greek Island. The story takes place over many years, from 1949 to 2010. And so many characters! Multiple generations of one family and those whose lives they touch. I actually took notes which helped me keep up with them all. The foreign names could be a problem for some readers, as well.
The story begins with Abdullah and Pari, brother and sister living in the small Afghan town of Shadbagh. When they are tragically separated as children, one can only hope the plot will twist to have them reunited by the end. One obvious theme is how the choices people make reverberate through their lives and the lives of others. "Hosseini explores the many ways in which family members love, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another" (from the book jacket). The emotional intensity of the novel certainly made it a page-turner for me! My rating is a 5.
-from the novel
This is the third novel by Hosseini I have read. He is truly an amazing storyteller! In fact the quote above could describe the author himself.
The setting is mostly Afghanistan but also Paris, San Francisco and a Greek Island. The story takes place over many years, from 1949 to 2010. And so many characters! Multiple generations of one family and those whose lives they touch. I actually took notes which helped me keep up with them all. The foreign names could be a problem for some readers, as well.
The story begins with Abdullah and Pari, brother and sister living in the small Afghan town of Shadbagh. When they are tragically separated as children, one can only hope the plot will twist to have them reunited by the end. One obvious theme is how the choices people make reverberate through their lives and the lives of others. "Hosseini explores the many ways in which family members love, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another" (from the book jacket). The emotional intensity of the novel certainly made it a page-turner for me! My rating is a 5.
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February 24, 2021
"Seeing her father's face in those photos stirred an old sensation in Pari, a feeling that she had for as long as she could remember. That there was in her life the absence of something, or someone, fundamental to her own existence. Sometimes it was vague, like a message sent across shadowy byways and vast distances, a weak signal on a radio dial, remote, warbled. Other times it felt so clear, this absence, so intimately close it made her heart lurch."
-from Chapter 6, Pari's story
When this book was suggested for Page Turners for this year, I agreed to include it since I remembered it fondly. The funny thing was I remembered almost none of it from 2014 as I began to reread. I gave it a 5 seven years ago but I will demote it to a 4. I have read too many books I have appreciated more in those years, including two others by this author, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. I cannot deny that Hosseini has a beautiful writing style and weaves an intricate plot. In this case, almost too intricate!
The novel is more like a series of interrelated short stories, narrated by different characters. And there are SO many characters! The multiple time lines and geographical locations make it even more confusing at times, moving from 1952 to 2010, through Afghanistan, Paris, the Greek island of Tinos and San Francisco. To be honest, there is not much joy in this story, more a tale of persistence and survival. It will be interesting to hear reactions from the other Page Turners. More after that....
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Page Turners had a rousing discussion on Zoom with 14 in attendance. Ratings ran the gamut---from 5 all the way down to 1, with an average of 3.2. Many participants praised Hosseini's writing but did not think this book was nearly as good as his first two (mentioned above). One member felt the author portrayed some of the more recent history of Afghanistan with great skill and emotion. Another noted themes of human passions----especially extremes like jealousy and hate---and how decisions made in the heat of a moment can "echo" through ones life and cause much suffering. A few in the group agreed that Mr. Markos is one of the only "*rightdoing" characters in the novel; many of the others did horrible things. (*See publisher's discussion questions #s4-6.) We could pretty much agree the book was tedious, not really a page-turner, and we found the ending disappointing. We are hoping next month's book is more uplifting!
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