We’ve been battling the flu at our house, yes, the dreaded H1N1 virus. The good thing about being a writer is that I never have to miss a day of work. (The bad thing? I never have to miss a day of work.) On several days during the last two weeks I’ve found myself hanging out with my youngest, watching reality TV shows, and writing on my laptop. Amazingly, I've met my word count goal for those days. (I’ve reminded my youngest that the older kids were only allowed to watch PPS when they were home sick…not that we had cable back then. Oh, the benefits of being the caboose.)
I’ve also done a little bit of reading, including devouring A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini in one day. I could not put the novel down, even as I was stirring chicken noodle soup for dinner. Like The Kite Runner, Hosseini's first novel, this too is an amazing story. The structure is clean and defined and Hosseini develops the characters scene-by-scene, chapter-by-chapter. This story, also like The Kite Runner, covers decades and provides a survey of the history of modern day Afghanistan.
Women are the subject of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and when I finished the last sentence I had two conflicting thoughts. The first: How can the U.S.’s involvement in Afghanistan make a lasting difference? The second: How can it not make a lasting difference? Please let there be hope for these women…for these children…for these men.
If you haven’t read A Thousand Splendid Suns I recommend it. Hosseini is a master storyteller. (And thank you to our friend Diana for loaning it to me. Peter enjoyed it too. He read it first and then handed it to me the second he was done.)
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