6 years... 6 years is the time lesser mortals like us had to wait for another offering by the great called Khaled Hosseini. Many books came and went in this time. Yet, there were few which rose up to the standards set by the amazingly beautiful, profound and touching A Thousand Splendid Suns. While there might be no specific line or quote I can recall from that book but each and every incidence in that book is so well etched in my mind that few of those still send a chill down my spine.
And this was where And The Mountains Echoed stood in sharp contrast to it. May be I was expecting too much or I am not seeing things in the correct light but somehow the latest book by Khaled Hosseini failed to impress me at any level.There are certain phases or portions where the novel touches you but overall it fails to leave an impression.
The book touches the common theme of familial ties, something that is common to all of Khaled Hosseini's books. It started with a father - son story, then it was more of a mother - sister relation and this was all about a brother - sister tie. Pari and Abdullah are siblings who love each other like anything. Pari is more of a daughter to Abdullah than a sister. However, one fateful day, they undertake a journey across the mountains with their father and nothing and nobody shall ever be the same again. It is a story that takes you across continents and generations with an ease that only a writer of the writer's caliber can accomplish. In between, there are tugs at the heart and calls to the soul, all rising to a crescendo.
And this is where it fails. The climax is good but the ending is weak. And The Mountains Echoed is a narration beautiful in parts but unattractive in totality. There is nothing in it that you will cherish and keep close to your heart. Neither the plight nor the pains, neither the smiles nor the laughs - it is almost like the author has assumed the reactions that the narrative should evoke in the reader's heart and worked backwards.
However, the book marks a clear deviation from the previous two books by Khaled Hosseini. To me, they were more about the way seemingly inconsequential decisions on our end snowball to change our lives. This book was how the decisions of others can affect us and make us something more or less than what we are or what we can be. It is about how the manner in which others think and act can make or break us and our life.
So, all in all, worth a read but not not worthy of suggestion. In a word - mediocre.
The book touches the common theme of familial ties, something that is common to all of Khaled Hosseini's books. It started with a father - son story, then it was more of a mother - sister relation and this was all about a brother - sister tie. Pari and Abdullah are siblings who love each other like anything. Pari is more of a daughter to Abdullah than a sister. However, one fateful day, they undertake a journey across the mountains with their father and nothing and nobody shall ever be the same again. It is a story that takes you across continents and generations with an ease that only a writer of the writer's caliber can accomplish. In between, there are tugs at the heart and calls to the soul, all rising to a crescendo.
And this is where it fails. The climax is good but the ending is weak. And The Mountains Echoed is a narration beautiful in parts but unattractive in totality. There is nothing in it that you will cherish and keep close to your heart. Neither the plight nor the pains, neither the smiles nor the laughs - it is almost like the author has assumed the reactions that the narrative should evoke in the reader's heart and worked backwards.
However, the book marks a clear deviation from the previous two books by Khaled Hosseini. To me, they were more about the way seemingly inconsequential decisions on our end snowball to change our lives. This book was how the decisions of others can affect us and make us something more or less than what we are or what we can be. It is about how the manner in which others think and act can make or break us and our life.
So, all in all, worth a read but not not worthy of suggestion. In a word - mediocre.
The problem I have found in this second and this book is that, His fist book has raised the bar so much that being good is no option for him...
ReplyDeleteIn this book also he is good but we needed some thing extra from him.. He is amazingly simple in telling complex thing but he failed to take us to the emotional level which we want to go with him book...
Hey Saifi,
DeleteThanks for going through the post :).
Yea, that is true. Somehow the way his first book could rouse the emotions, his second one could not and third one went even more downhill. First one was, is and shall forever remain beyond words and compliments, to say the least. However, whatever the second lacked, in terms of emotional upheaval, it more than made up with the starkness of the truth that it portrayed.
Somehow, the third one lacked both. As you have rightly summarised, 'being good is no option for him...'.
Thanks again :).