There is no doubt that he is a master storyteller, just like Saboor in 'And the Mountains Echoed'. In MBA language, story telling is his core competency :D 'And the Mountains Echoed' is yet another beautiful book but also a lot different from the first two because the sorrows faced by the characters are less intense. Unlike the first two, which in a way rely on Afghanistan's unbelievable tragedies to move the reader by their own merit, this book leaves more work to the author because it is more general and less tragic. I think the author is trying to break away from getting into a reptitive theme and context for his books. The narrative by Marcos proves that Hosseini is really a good writer and not just riding on his country's misfortunes to make moving stories. I guess he'll move more towards neutral stories and characters from now.
Rather than a single story, this book is full of multiple small stories from the perspective of different characters. It is so rich in the variety and depth of characters that it is almost like a handbook of the many types of people exisitng in this world. There are people who are strongly shaped by circumstance and people who strongly retain their core inspite of it. He shows how people are so very complicated and makes one wonder if it even makes sense to judge people anymore. I found Parwana and Idris to be two really complex characters. Both of them may have turned out well but they are beaten into being what they are by incidents in their life. Parwana's horrible betrayal of her sister, twice, shows how deeply she must have been affected by the neglect and negative comparison she has faced all her life. And somehow I don't even know if I can blame her for being the way she is: heaven knows how her mind slowly hardened over the years with the constant wounding to her esteem and heart. Idris is such a real character!One of those people whose righteous(or otherwise) anger is expressed through resentment towards all and sundry rather than fruitful action. I guess I'm one of those people too though ;) The relationship between Idris and Timur is so complex. Timur is shown as being a person who is really good at heart despite all his antics and yet he did contribute in making Idris the bitter person he was.
One surprising thing about Hosseini is how sensitive he seems to be to what a plain woman feels and the fact that he brought this situation up in two books. In this book it is Parwana and in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', it was Mariam. Both are neglected because they are plain and Hosseini describes their reaction to it with a surprising amount of insight. I thought you would have to be in the shoes of such a person, or atleast a girl, to understand it but Hosseini does a great job. For instance, when he points out in the book that Parwana was not angry that the boys threw pebbles but that they threw them only on Masooma! But I wonder what his connection to it is. Or as usual, I'm reading too much into things :D
My favourite excerpt in the book: "Pari spots an old woman across the street, wearing a plastic rain bonnet, labouring up the sidewalk trailed by a small tan terrier. Not for the first time, a little puff breaks rank from the collective fog of Pari's memories and slowly takes the shape of a dog. Not a little toy like the old woman's, but a big mean specimen, furry, dirty, with a severed tail and ears. Pari is unsure whether this, in fact, is a memory or the ghost of one or neither. She had asked Maman once if they had ever owned a dog in Kabul and Maman said, You know I don't like dogs. They have no self-respect. You kick them and they still love you. It's depressing."
When I kindly overlook Maman's idiotic opinion, this para gives me goosebumps for some reason. The contrast between the two dogs is much like the contrast between Paris and Kabul and the two very different lives of Pari. It's beautifully put. And I love the fact that it's a dog that still binds Pari to her remote past. Dogs are like that :)
Rather than a single story, this book is full of multiple small stories from the perspective of different characters. It is so rich in the variety and depth of characters that it is almost like a handbook of the many types of people exisitng in this world. There are people who are strongly shaped by circumstance and people who strongly retain their core inspite of it. He shows how people are so very complicated and makes one wonder if it even makes sense to judge people anymore. I found Parwana and Idris to be two really complex characters. Both of them may have turned out well but they are beaten into being what they are by incidents in their life. Parwana's horrible betrayal of her sister, twice, shows how deeply she must have been affected by the neglect and negative comparison she has faced all her life. And somehow I don't even know if I can blame her for being the way she is: heaven knows how her mind slowly hardened over the years with the constant wounding to her esteem and heart. Idris is such a real character!One of those people whose righteous(or otherwise) anger is expressed through resentment towards all and sundry rather than fruitful action. I guess I'm one of those people too though ;) The relationship between Idris and Timur is so complex. Timur is shown as being a person who is really good at heart despite all his antics and yet he did contribute in making Idris the bitter person he was.
One surprising thing about Hosseini is how sensitive he seems to be to what a plain woman feels and the fact that he brought this situation up in two books. In this book it is Parwana and in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', it was Mariam. Both are neglected because they are plain and Hosseini describes their reaction to it with a surprising amount of insight. I thought you would have to be in the shoes of such a person, or atleast a girl, to understand it but Hosseini does a great job. For instance, when he points out in the book that Parwana was not angry that the boys threw pebbles but that they threw them only on Masooma! But I wonder what his connection to it is. Or as usual, I'm reading too much into things :D
My favourite excerpt in the book: "Pari spots an old woman across the street, wearing a plastic rain bonnet, labouring up the sidewalk trailed by a small tan terrier. Not for the first time, a little puff breaks rank from the collective fog of Pari's memories and slowly takes the shape of a dog. Not a little toy like the old woman's, but a big mean specimen, furry, dirty, with a severed tail and ears. Pari is unsure whether this, in fact, is a memory or the ghost of one or neither. She had asked Maman once if they had ever owned a dog in Kabul and Maman said, You know I don't like dogs. They have no self-respect. You kick them and they still love you. It's depressing."
When I kindly overlook Maman's idiotic opinion, this para gives me goosebumps for some reason. The contrast between the two dogs is much like the contrast between Paris and Kabul and the two very different lives of Pari. It's beautifully put. And I love the fact that it's a dog that still binds Pari to her remote past. Dogs are like that :)
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