And The Mountains Echoed
The first line of the first page reads," So you want a story? I'll tell you one now". And like all of Hosseini's stories, it was a bittersweet one.
After The Kite Runner, and A Thousand Splendid Suns, expectations were plentiful from this latest work and also some apprehension, a hope that the author would not fall back to the same manner of story-telling - of lives torn apart by the wars in Afghanistan. Thankfully, he didn't.
The story nonetheless is a sad tale of separation of brother and sister, Abdullah and Pari, and of the lives of a few other characters related to the leading two in some fashion. Afghanistan, Kabul to be specific, is again the glue, the common denominator that binds them all - those who lived through the wars, those who exiled and those who came in the aftermath to rebuild. In terms of plot, the story unfortunately is nigh predictable with little surprises but nevertheless it tugs at the strings of your heart and strikes all the right notes.
What's refreshing is the change in the author's writing style. Where the Kite Runner had a single first person narrative in a linear fashion, A Thousand Splendid Suns a third person narration following the two prime characters, And The Mountains Echoed unfolds with interspersed multiple first person narrations, third person narrations, a letter and an interview in a delightfully non-chronological order. But as a downside of the multi-pronged approach, somewhere along the book the story starts to feel a bit dragged out. The digressions are detailed giving depth and insights to the secondary characters but to an impatient reader may tire him/her out. The imagery in descriptions is flowing and beautiful and as mentioned earlier, the reader is spared to revisit the ugliness of the wars. On a personal front, the translations of Rumi and Faiz which were abundant in the previous works, were sorely missed. In all, a not so brilliant story told in a startlingly brilliant manner.
My Verdict: This is different from the previous works and stands well by itself. Don't compare it to the Kite Runner and you won't be disappointed.
After The Kite Runner, and A Thousand Splendid Suns, expectations were plentiful from this latest work and also some apprehension, a hope that the author would not fall back to the same manner of story-telling - of lives torn apart by the wars in Afghanistan. Thankfully, he didn't.
The story nonetheless is a sad tale of separation of brother and sister, Abdullah and Pari, and of the lives of a few other characters related to the leading two in some fashion. Afghanistan, Kabul to be specific, is again the glue, the common denominator that binds them all - those who lived through the wars, those who exiled and those who came in the aftermath to rebuild. In terms of plot, the story unfortunately is nigh predictable with little surprises but nevertheless it tugs at the strings of your heart and strikes all the right notes.
What's refreshing is the change in the author's writing style. Where the Kite Runner had a single first person narrative in a linear fashion, A Thousand Splendid Suns a third person narration following the two prime characters, And The Mountains Echoed unfolds with interspersed multiple first person narrations, third person narrations, a letter and an interview in a delightfully non-chronological order. But as a downside of the multi-pronged approach, somewhere along the book the story starts to feel a bit dragged out. The digressions are detailed giving depth and insights to the secondary characters but to an impatient reader may tire him/her out. The imagery in descriptions is flowing and beautiful and as mentioned earlier, the reader is spared to revisit the ugliness of the wars. On a personal front, the translations of Rumi and Faiz which were abundant in the previous works, were sorely missed. In all, a not so brilliant story told in a startlingly brilliant manner.
My Verdict: This is different from the previous works and stands well by itself. Don't compare it to the Kite Runner and you won't be disappointed.
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