'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is a moving tale of a tragedy stricken country Afghanistan. The author depicts through Mariam the cruelty and atrocities inflicted upon many a women under the Taliban rule. How a female can be robbed of her beauty, dignity and
love is shown in a heart wrenching and gripping story.
The story begins with a five
year old realising her worthlessness. Mariam is told by her epileptic
mother Nana that she is an unwanted child, an illlegitimate whom no one loves, not even the man who fathered her. She is made to understand that her father, Jalil cannot accept her for he has an standing in Herat and also three legitimate wives and children. However, Jalil who visits Mariam every Thursday has made Mariam grow fond of himself. Mariam eagerly waits for him as he brings the entire world and its charms to her through his stories.
But to Mariam's horror, this link with Jalil is suddenly snapped when her mother commits suicide and she realises that Jalil has no guts to take the guardianship of his child. She is still grieving the loss that the mother's death and Jalil's coldness have dealt on her, when she is forced into nikah with Rasheed, a shoemaker from Kabul.
Thus begins the fifteen year old's married
life with a man thirty years her senior. Their first love making is certainly not an experience of warmth and passion, it is not to leave in her any memory of fulfillment or enjoyment. But Mariam learns to do it dutyfully as "it's what the Prophet and his wives did ", reminds her Rasheed.
Life for Mariam was destined to be cruel. Her pregnancy fails and this provides Rasheed with reason enough to thrash her frequently. However hard she tries she fails to pacify him and develops an abysmally low self esteem. Mariam recieves the final blow when Rasheed announces his plans to marry Laila, a fifteen year old and victim of the Taliban war. Rasheed conspires to make Laila believe that everyone dear to her was killed in the war and thus tricks her into matrimony. The girl who once wrote and spoke poetry joins Mariam and her unhappy life. The fifty something Rasheed now has two women at his disposal, whom he loves and thrashes alternately, as and when he pleases.
Towards the end we see the two women, each victim of life and her husband Rasheed, finding solace in each other's company. They plan to escape Rasheed but their effort to flee is aborted by harsh Sharia laws that forbid a woman to travel without a male member of the family. They were brougth back and Rasheed keeps them without water and food for days.
Mariam who had spent her life trying to find a person who could love her, could make her feel wanted had found him in Laila. And she, for Liala's freedom and her own finally kills Rasheed. She has no misapprehension about the result of her act and is caught and killed by the Taliban but is happy for Laila.
Rasheed's murder was Mariam's only and greatest act of courage.The girl who all her life yearned for love, sacrifices her life for Laila, whom she had though not mothered but had with her developed a bond that emerges stronger than all ties.
More reviews about the A Thousand Splendid Suns