Wow, I can't beleive I read this book in two days.

This was a spine twisting book. Just when you thougth there was a slight bit of hope, something would happen to knock it all down. I think for me, this is why the title makes sense. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Each new day could be a splendid day or a horrible one and it seemed like there may have only been a thousand splendid days, until the very end of the book.

I think this book also showed how much a women really can handle, although I do think that there is a big difference between how much an Arab women and an American women would have taken. Personally the first day that he hit me, I would have taken the gun and shot him in the mist of all the other gun firing and figured out away to claim I was a widow of war.

Hi Lisa Marie . . .

That's pretty much how it went - every day, bad or good. Most days with the man were a challenge - anything she got that was any facsimile of 'good' must have seemed wonderful.

As for what women can take . . . well, it depends on what they 'have to' take. We here in the western world don't have to take that kind of abuse from a man.

The women in this story had no choice - it was the way things were done - a man owned his woman (women) and he could more or less do what he liked with them.

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We have to realize, of course, that not ALL men from that part of the world are cruel with their wives. There are other accounts from this culture - The Bookkeeper of Kabul . . . I remember that story. He was a truly loving man. Even when the Taliban forced the men to treat their women badly, he still tried to be kind to her.

The higher castes of people there seem to tell a different story . . . Daughter of Persia tells of a girl who was brought up in her father's harem of wives - each mother had her own house and servants where she raised her children.

I'm three quarters the way through that one - it's a true story. You might find that read interesting.

Hello Carly,

I think " Daughter of Persia" was one of my recommendations, wasn't it?

At any rate I'm glad you're enjoying it. This book made quite an impression on me because it tells the truth about Iran but from the perspective of a woman who doesn't have to suffer the fate of the common lot (because of her social class and education).

Still, even someone like her who was so strong had only one option to save her life under the Mollahs: run to America.

Yes, it was probably you - I know somebody 'online' recommended it to me - along with The Septembers of Shiraz . . . another brilliant book.

We're 3/4 the way through Daughter of Persia.

And yes - Tattie didn't suffer like the commonfolk . . . so her telling of how it is, would be a little different from other women there.

She even says so much at a few spots in the book - she realizes that she was better off than others.

She's a bit biased . . . that part where she claims Israel made all that trouble for Palestine . . . Palestine, of course, never bothered anyone - ha ha!