The novel starts with Saboor narrating an allegory to his two young children, Abdullah and Pari, trying to help them understand why he had to give up one of his children to save the family. Readers empathize when Abdullah and Pari are separated, and continue to mourn as the family's other relationships -- and the dynamics between characters -- are revealed.
Readers are introduced to a host of other characters, including Nabi, Parwana, and Masooma, another set of siblings that is separated by a number of factors; Suleiman and Nila Wahdati, a husband and wife divided by more than distance; Timur and Idris, expat brothers whose values disconnect them; Iqbal and Gholam, a tightly-bonded father and son who were severed from their home by a warlord and his son; Markos and Thalia, a pair who were strongly connected despite no blood relation; and then Abdullah, Pari, and their families much later in life.
While each set of characters has an interesting, powerful story that draws at readers' heartstrings, Hosseini incorporates too many plot lines that are seemingly cut short by the start of a new chapter, stories that are too confusingly woven together. From the beginning, readers simply crave the narrative of Abdullah and Pari, not the stories of their distant relatives.
And the Mountains Echoed truly shows Hosseini's remarkable storytelling ability, but perhaps the book would have been more interesting had it been a series of vignettes telling each character-set's story rather than a full-length novel that ineffectively interweaves them together.
The hardcover edition of the novel is available on Amazon.com for $13.00.
Book review by Ms. B.
No comments:
Post a Comment