Michelle's Review

Hi everyone, make sure when you post your review you click on the New Post link at the top of the page. thanks! here's michelle's review. i spoke w/mark and he is going to post his soon and he is buying the new book today! mich, i love your pic, i just never asked you if you did. thanks

Kim-- why'd you ask if I wanted to post a different picture of myself? Is that a bad picture of me? As a matter of fact I was just going through photos on my computer, trying to organize them with Picasa, and came across some that I was like, "who is this person?" So that one is perfectly fine in my mind. :)anyway, yes, i too enjoyed this book very much. He is a talented writer-- seems effortless for him. yeah, Laila is an amazing woman. She was so courageous. Her father clearly had made an impact on her character-- little things like when he brought she and Tariq up to the Buddha. It's very inspiring I think as a woman to read these women's stories. (by the way-- The Glass Castle is totally inspiring. Talk about a messed up family-- if any of us think we have family problems just read that book!) Like the daughter in the movie Rabbit Proof Fence-- wasn't she incredible? (Sorry, you'll have to forgive the bad sentences, sentence structure, and kind of scattered thoughts. i'm a little tired.) Yes, I also agree that people are people first everywhere. And we want the same things out of life-- security, serenity, love, companionship. Hosseini described beautifully how ashamed Mariam was to have slept outside of her father's house. And how prior to that, when she waited for him every week, so afraid he wouldn't show up each Thursday, and so elated when he did. wow, powerful stuff.I am really grateful to have read this book. I had no idea what it might be like to wear a burqa. why would I of course. or what it might be like for a woman to be married off at such a young age. But what is so refreshing about Hoseeini's description of these situations for these women is how their experiences are complex. Like for Mariam, how wearing the burqa is at once constraining, where she is aware that all of these "modern" women who don't even wear headscarves, but then, at the same time, she is surprised at how wearing the burqa is also comforting. Like she's somehow protected, secure. Similarly, early on in Mariam and Rasheed's marriage when Mariam must stay upstairs when Rasheed has his friends over, and she can't come down, since no other man should be allowed to be the least bit tempted by her. But that she takes some pleasure in this-- because of course what this means is that she sees herself as valued by Rasheed, as deemed worthy enough to be hidden and protected from other men. She takes a little pride in it. So this is all really interesting. Of course, these women's lives overall are terrible. And I don't mean to downplay the role of the Taliban and what these women had to endure, it is trully terrible, all of it. I just wanted to point out that Hosseini does an excellent job of conveying the complexity of human emotions and how they are played out in day to day lives. You don't read that on a website. Great book!!:) Michelle