And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Some of the books that have me cringe and cry enough to close a book, only to gather up enough courage to read the rest have been Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. When I saw in the Philippines that a new book had come out, I knew I had to get my hands on it.

And the Mountains Echoed has a very approach I became familiar with by reading Jodi Picoult. She likes to take the voice of different audiences to create her story. Similarly, Hosseini has used both different characters' voices and flashbacks to keep the reader constantly working out the storyline and on the edge of their seats to know the ending. In a way, it was infuriating to have the story cut midway, scrambling to figure out what happened, but in hindsight it could only mirror what it must have felt for Pari who must try to piece together a life she barely remembers. Set in 1952 Afghanistan, the book begins with a bedtime story Abdullah is told by his father Saboor; it is a story that contains so much of the rest of the book including a Sophie's choice, the gift of oblivion, and emptiness we can never seem to fill.

 Saboor and his youngest daughter, Pari, set out to Kabul to meet Nabi who is his brother in-law who has promised Saboor a job building an addition to Nabir's employer's, Mr. Wahdati's, house. But it turns out the trip is to trade Pari, who will be adopted as part of the Wahdati house, for money to feed the family through the winter. As the story is pieced together through the eyes of different people, it turns out Pari lives a life of luxury, being well-fed and well-educated in France after Nila (formerly Mr. Wahdati) left the paralyzed Mr. Wahdati for Nabi to take care of. In the meanwhile, Abduallah, Parwana, Iqbal (Parwana and Saboor's youngest son), and Saboor leave for refugee camp in Pakistan when the war breaks out. We find out Abudullah leaves for the US with his wife and settles down, running a restaurant of his own. Iqbal goes back to Afghanistan during the US occupancy to reclaim the house they all grew up, only to see a wealthy army general who had been part of the jihad had built an enormous mansion for his family there. Angered, Iqbal attacks the house and is assumably killed. Pari and Abdullah are finally united through tragically so as Abdullah suffers from Alzheimers and cannot recognize that the women standing in front of him is the little sister he had so longed to find.

As usual, book cover

There is a shift for Hosseini in writing style and character development, compared to his previous books. In Kite Runner characters are almost purely good or bad, while in A Thousand Splendid Suns Hosseini manages to develop the characters towards the end. But characters are much more human with greater depth in this novel as they are forced to fight for their livelihood. I still haven't decided if the introduction and integration of so many characters into the story line has helped the story line or dilute it. The middle-end section focusing on the foreign aid worker and his early life in Tinos did not seem to add to the overall colorfulness Hosseini tries to recreate for the authors. 

Undoubtedly, Hosseini's relies on his melodramatic and theatrical senses to bring the story home. At the very end of the book as Pari receives the tin box full of the feathers her brothers had once collected for her and she sheds tears before fading away in her sleep, I could almost here the cue. cut. of the director who would make this movie. This also meant that there was a lack of subtlety-- Hosseini felt the need to spell out key aspects of the book for the readers, rather than letting the readers do the work for him. 

I also think that an author's best works are often based off the experience he or she once had. As what I believe to be Hosseini's best work, And the Mountains Echoed contains characters with whom Hosseini could only too well empathize. Having born in Kabul but then moving to the US in 1980s well before the rise of the Taliban, Hosseini returns to Afghanistan for mixed motives, most likely. He sees a country that has changed so much compared to his childhood memories and ends up writing stories about his homeland, rocketing him to fame as one of the most riveting authors of our time. This can't be that much more different than the two cousins who have returned only to reclaim what belongs to their family or more directly Nila who went to Nabi's hometown, saw the poor state and misery people lived in, only to go back to her bubble of security and write about its horrors for some applause at a party. I've made a lot of assumptions in this part of the blog and I can't help but wonder  how much of it is true. 

Overall, an amazing read that kept me glued to my tablet. I wanted to read Sophie's Choice and watch the movie on the way to Argentina, but I'll upload something when I get the chance. Next time I blog, it will be in a different continent! 

Until then,