The 19th Wife

I suggested The 19th Wife at our November meeting as a possibility for one of our selections in 2009. But I've since finished it, and I don't really think it would be a good fit for our book club. You can read my review here and draw your own conclusions. There would certainly be plenty to talk about, but I think we have some much better titles to choose from - check out the list here.

Thoughts on Hannah Coulter

Reading Hannah Coulter was a joy; this book is satisfyingly substantial and beautifully written. Our discussion was profound and has led me down many paths of thought since - one being to wonder whether a return to a more agrarian and "membership" lifestyle might answer a number of the economic, political, and social questions our country is now facing. In that respect, it is a timely read. I'm sure it's not the answer we'll get from Washington; perhaps it's worth thinking about for that reason alone...

Year I in Review: May '08 ~ THREE CUPS OF TEA by Greg Mortenson & A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini

We had trouble deciding on a book selection for May, so we picked two that we thought might complement each other: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Unfortunately, we found that we were overly ambitious, and for a number of reasons most of our members weren't able to finish both books. This made the discussion a bit more difficult, but there were still plenty of broad topics that we could discuss in relation to these two books. To celebrate the end of our first year, we met for dinner at a local Indian restaurant, the closest we could get to Pakistani or Afghan food.

We used some of the questions from the Penguin Reading Guides for each book to get our discussion started. We talked about the different perceptions of Islam that are presented in each book. Three Cups of Tea takes a very positive approach to recognizing the value of the culture in the Pakistani villages where Greg Mortensen worked. You get the impression that most of these Muslims don't want any part in the extremes of the Taliban. In contrast, the male leaders of these villages seem glad to educate their daughters in order that they might bring advances in medicine and education back to their people. On the other hand, A Thousand Splendid Suns presents the harsh reality of women in a male dominated society, a plight that was made even more desperate with the rise of the Taliban. I still shudder to think of some of the scenes that were described in that novel.

We found it interesting that Greg Mortenson made a point to offer only practical help to the leaders of remote mountain villages in Pakistan. He attributed a good part of his success in building relationships to the fact that he did not have any religious or political agenda. We speculated about how the story might have been different had he brought a Christian message with his schools and other projects.

Although Greg Mortenson's story was amazing, we did find the writing style of Three Cups of Tea to be somewhat lacking and at times annoying. Maybe it was more a journalistic style, as the co-author David Relin is a journalist, not a novelist. He could definitely benefit from reading William Strunk's The Elements of Style.

Only half of our members read A Thousand Splendid Suns by the time of our meeting. Though we didn't have a chance to talk about it, I (Page Turner) thought the character development in this novel was superb. I quickly sympathized with Mariam and found Rasheed despicable. It evoked a wide range of emotions - from tears to shock to anger to hope.

Captive Thoughts members, if you later finished one or both of these books, please add to this summary and discussion in the comments.