"Men treasure their manhood as God's greatest gift
Because without it, justice is brutal and swift.
What good is a woman's telling of truth
When nothing she says will be taken as proof."
-Zeba, from the novel
When I checked this book out, I had only a week to read it before our book club meeting to discuss it. Not to worry---I finished it in less than 3 days. In fact, I could hardly put it down!
The story is compelling. First readers meet Zeba, an Afghan woman, who is found with her brutally murdered husband and is quickly assumed to be his killer. Next we are introduced to Yusuf, a native of Afghanistan brought to the U.S. as a youngster, who becomes a lawyer and follows his dream to return to his native land and work for justice. One could easily predict that Yusuf would end up defending Zeba. Indeed he does, and he has his work cut out for him since his client refuses to tell him what happened.
Gradually, we become acquainted with the women imprisoned with Zeba, as well as her family members. Her mother, Gulnaz, is particularly intriguing since she is known as a jadugar, or wizard, described by some as a "green-eyed sorceress." The reference to her haunting eyes reminded me of the very famous photograph of an Afghan woman in National Geographic years ago. In fact, when Yusuf meets her he "felt himself pulled by the crystalline green of her eyes. How exotic, he thought, feeling fully Western as it occurred to him. These were the kinds of eyes that foreign photographers would plaster on magazine covers." The reader soon becomes aware Zeba has inherited her mother's "gift." As she shares it with her cellmates, she is treated with reverence and awe. The women are also taken with her self-expression in couplets. (See above.) One of them, Latifa, composes her own near the end of the book:
"These hardheaded men from their pulpits won't budge.
How the world would be different if a woman could judge!"
I thought I would be comparing this novel to A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Though the setting is the same, I was relieved to find this book is not as graphic in its portrayal of violence toward women as …Suns. The fact that women are "second-class citizens" at best comes through loud and clear, however. I am reminded how blessed I am to be an American!
I feel A House Without Windows is very well-written. This was the first I've read by this author but won't be the last. I am rating it a 5 and I look forward to the meeting on Thursday to hear what the other Page Turners think!
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Our Page Turners' meeting today produced a very good discussion even giving cause to compare the plight of women in Afghanistan with that of American women of the past and even the present. The group appreciated the book overall, with an average rating of 3.7. We used questions from Savvy Reader which were the same as in the book club edition of the novel but hardly needed them since many had ready comments and questions. We first addressed who we thought killed Kamal and it was amazing how many different directions our minds had gone in predicting. The author, we felt, had planned it just so. We agreed that Gulnaz was an interesting character and we sure wouldn't want to get on her bad side! We also liked Timur for finding creative ways to get the neighbors to come forward in Zeba's behalf. We felt he had known of Kamal's evil nature and perhaps had witnessed his abuse. There was agreement that the judge was pretty wise and progressive. We liked Yusuf and some of us wanted to believe he and Sultana would later become a couple. The possibility of a sequel came up. I have to wonder about a film adaptation, as well. Hmmm....
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