Rory Gee

I really enjoyed 'Splendid Suns'. It is certainly one of the more impactful and moving novels I've read. It had the effect of making the characters and situations in my subsequent few reads seem to have an almost petty quality in comparison. The characters of this story, their lives, their tragedies and their continuous struggles were always compelling. Miriam was unambiguously the most poignant character and as interesting as Laila, her family and Tariq were, for me it was Miriam’s plight that ultimately drove the narrative. Of course, the interweaving stories came together superbly in the last third or so. Depictions of life in Afghanistan through the numerous upheavals was also vivid and often very harrowing. Thoroughly recommended.

Generally interesting and enjoyable, with an offbeat main concept and a unique take on the first - "person" narrative. However, while it was impressive conceptually and was reasonably compelling as narrative, it ultimately felt a bit flat and underwhelming. It raised some interesting themes, particularly around the conflict of human emotions vs rational thought, as well as the familiar one concerning the effect of technological advancement on people's wellbeing. However, for all the time these themes were present, they rarely seemed to come under any great focus or analysis. Several plot strands remained unresolved and there were characters that I had invested in (such as 'Father') who had effectively lost any importance to the story by the end. Additionally, the futuristic setting was not particularly detailed or convincing. It would seem that much of these narrative issues were deliberate, as everything was described through Klara's point of view. Her's was a curious and often incisive viewpoint, but nonetheless limited to her understanding of situations and her surroundings and whatever verbal/non-verbal information was provided by the human characters. The result was that while I was basically interested in the story, I was never truly emotionally engaged with the plight of any of the characters.