Outside Reading, Week 7, Post B

Well, overall, I'd have to say I was rather disappointed by the novel's ending. Hosseini seemed to realize about 60 pages from the end that he was up no-realistic-plot-ending-in-sight creek without a paddle and started to grasp at the only straws he had left, namely Tariq. WHY? Why would you do this to such a wonderful book? I believe I mentioned this is my previous post, but when an author kills a character, he should be dead. Gone. Deceased. 6 feet under. Whatever you want to call it, they should be removed from the story completely, except maybe if a character that is still alive wants to reference them. Hosseini had no need to bring Tariq in. The only thing that he really brought to the story was the safety that Laila had at the end of the story, but that's about it. Hosseini could have done something out of the ordinary and gone with a tragic ending to a tragic story, but instead he wimped out and went the cliché "everything's okey-dokey" route and allowed Laila to run away with her prince charming. What I would have done is had Mariam and Laila kill Rasheed, then, again, have Mariam take the fall for it while Laila takes the kids and starts a new life. My ending truly exemplifies that "women against society" that Hosseini keeps beating the reader over the head with throughout the novel and creates a unique ending that a reader will remember, not something that smells like a heaping serving of unicorn vomit lightly sauteéd in a stars-and-rainbows sauce.

So, in short, is A Thousand Splendid Suns a good book? Yeah, I would say so. It provided for an entertaining read. But the ending leaves the reader walking away with a rotten taste in their mouth. Probably from all the moonbeams.