Books

Multi-layered morality tale

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini; Bloomsbury; Price: Rs.585; 370 pp

Some of the most enduring works of literary fiction are etched against the background of great wars and conflicts. Notable in this genre are Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Dr. Zhivago (Boris Pasternak), For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway), and Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell). To the long list of classic war fiction, add A Thousand Splendid Suns, a poignant narrative of two women caught in the successive wars, civil conflict and socio-economic upheavals which have convulsed the neighbouring country of Afghanistan (pop.31.88 million) during the past three decades following the deposition (after a long reign of 42 years) of King Zahir Shah in 1973.

On the surface, the novel narrates the parallel lives of its two Afghan women protagonists — Maryam and Laila — two perhaps typical women of this unfortunate country who suffer untold tragedies, none of their own making, with extraordinary courage and fortitude. Yet at a deeper level, it’s a searing indictment of oppressive patriarchy endorsed by religious practice which — it needs to be boldly stated without equivocation — is the rule rather than exception, in the great majority of Islamic nation states and societies around the world. Social and religious sanction of polygamy and the abject status of women, a defining characteristic of Islamic societies, are inextricably linked, suggests Kabul-born Khaled Hosseini, author of this moving novel which highlights the open, continuous and uninterrupted gender injustice which women in Islamic societies suffer to this day.

The captivating narrative begins with Maryam becoming aware of her illegitimate status. The daughter of Nana, a maidservant who is set upon by Jalil, a prosperous businessman in Herat who already has three wives and nine children, inevitably Nana is branded the transgressor of social norms and banished to live in a makeshift hut on the edge of town. Maryam grows up a lonely child, the only joy in her life being the infrequent visits to their kolba (hut) by Jalil, who mercifully is not completely devoid of filial affection. For 15 years Maryam endures a lonely, illiterate existence with her embittered mother as her sole companion, until her imagination fired by Jalil’s stories of life in Herat, one fateful day she gate-crashes into his palatial home in town, only to suffer painful rejection and humiliation as an unwanted bastard child. On her return to her kolba, she discovers that in anticipation of her daughter’s pain Nana has hanged herself.

With Maryam orphaned, Jalil is obliged to take her under his roof. The women of Afghanistan — perhaps across the Islamic world — have been so brainwashed by the powerful patriarchy that instead of forming a sisterhood of the oppressed, Jalil’s three wives immediately start conspiring to get rid of the 15-year-old Maryam and arrange her marriage to Rasheed, a Kabul-based widower her father’s age. In these circumstances Maryam comes to Kabul, where she meets Laila, a neighbour’s daughter.

From this stage, the novel shifts focus to the daily trials and tribulations of Maryam and Laila in a society afflicted by a succession of wars and insurrections. While typically Rasheed begins beating and abusing Maryam after she suffers several miscarriages, Laila is fortunate in that her father is a liberal intellectual who ensures she receives a foundational education and does not object to her teenage friendship with Tariq, a war-wounded teenage neighbour.

The brief idyllic period of Laila’s life at school is quickly clouded by darker forces of history. With the help of American arms and munitions, the mujahideen drove the last Soviet troops out of Afghanistan in 1989. But after the defeat of Najib and the Soviets, the mujahideen (who had drafted Laila’s teenage brothers into the jihad in which they were killed) begin fighting among themselves, transforming Kabul into a deadly war zone subject to periodic rocket bombardment. To escape this, Tariq’s family leaves for Pakistan, but not before Laila and he consummate their long-standing relationship. Meanwhile in one of the bombings, Laila’s home is destroyed leaving her the sole survivor. Rasheed and Maryam dig her out of the rubble and give the orphaned girl shelter in their home.

It’s a measure of the extent to which the teachings of the Prophet and the message of the Koran have been converted to its own use by the oppressive patriarchy which dominates Islamic societies, that by invoking the spectre of sexual and moral impropriety, the scheming Rasheed (after sneakily conveying false information that Tariq has been killed in Pakistan) takes the teenage Laila as his second wife — with unchallenged social and ecclesiastic sanction. That Laila has her own reasons for consenting to the marriage (she is pregnant with Tariq’s child) is neither here nor there.

Yet the positive outcome of this ménage a trois is that Maryam and Laila develop a deep bond of mutually supportive friendship. Later after Laila has borne two children, including a much-longed-for son for Rasheed, who becomes abusive towards both women, during an altercation to save the life of her friend, Maryam kills Rasheed. Of course Maryam’s trial is before a gender biased trio of legally ignorant clergymen who rule that there can be no greater crime than murder of a husband, and Maryam is executed.

After putting readers through the emotional wringer, A Thousand Splendid Suns ends well. Tariq returns to be reunited with Laila and disproves the popular belief that all Islamic males are gender insensitive brutes. They cross the border into Pakistan and after the fall of the Taliban regime return to their beloved Kabul where "One cannot count the moons that shimmer on her roofs/ Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls," to make a new beginning.

Although narrated as a chronological story of Maryam and Laila whose lives are turned upside down in war-torn Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a multi-layered morality tale. Most of all it is a passionate plea for gender justice in the Islamic world. And deeper down the book makes a strong case for liberal secular education in Islamic societies as the prerequisite of smoothing the destructive sharp edges of religious fundamentalism.

Power of positive thinking

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne; Atria Books/ Beyond Words; Price: Rs.550; 198 pp

Through the ages, the power of the human mind, especially the power of positive thinking, has fascinated, driven and inspired people. Although the phenomenon of mind over matter is well acknowledged in the scriptures, mythology and folklore of every culture and is variously described as determination, will to succeed, mind force etc, the limitations of will power have been tacitly acknowledged. Now comes The Secret which in effect says there are absolutely no limitations to the human will — you can actualise your aspirations if you think and act positively.

The author of The Secret is an Australian television writer and producer. Until she first televised and then wrote The Secret, Rhonda Byrne was an unknown Aussie from Down Under. But success of The Secret has catapulted her to worldwide fame. First published in November 2006 with a print run of 200,000, this inspirational book has sold over one million copies and Byrne was listed among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world this year.

The secret of The Secret is that you can get whatever you want out of life if you doggedly believe you’ll get it. As she recounts in the foreword of the mind-bending manual, Byrne discovered The Secret when she herself was experiencing a personal crisis. Looking for answers in texts old and new, she discovered the power of positive energy which distinguishes successful people. This binding common factor is "the secret". As she followed this lead she kept accumulating evidence to support her discovery as also that of 29 other scholars who support her line of thinking, and who are co-authors of this motivational bestseller. Among the converted are Jack Canfield, co-creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul series and John Gray, author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

The Secret is divided into 11 chapters which examine, explain and extrapolate the secrets of success. The core of the message is simple: think positive; start living the life you want and the "law of attraction" will direct your desires towards you. "Claim the things you want by feeling and believing they are yours. When you do that, the law of attraction will powerfully move all circumstances, people and events for you to receive," advises Lisa Nicols, described as author and personal empowerment advocate and co-author of The Secret.

All this is powerful motivational stuff. How to operationalise the law of attraction? Helpfully there’s a full chapter entitled ‘How to use The Secret’. Does the law actually work? Check out the chapter entitled ‘Biographies’ which includes the stories of some of the co-authors of this inspiring work.

Yet against this backdrop, how does one explain the billions of people worldwide who are neither rich, healthy nor powerful? The glib claim of the authors of The Secret that they have brought it upon themselves through failure to think positive, is hard to stomach. The Secret glosses over the reality that socio-economic macro level policies, events and external forces shape the destinies of millions of people. The poverty of an individual cannot solely be explained by her failure to believe she can be rich. Surely the fact that the right to education is denied to so many children in India prevents them from moving up the socio-economic ladder? What about virtues like talent, hard work and factors like social connections and inherited wealth? Don’t they determine a person’s status in society?

The book also deals superficially with premature death, by suggesting that it is the result of people admitting they can be at the wrong place at the wrong time as are victims of natural calamities. But in their collective anxiety to be upbeat and think positive, the authors fudge issues such as mass murder through aggressive and deliberate pursuit of evil as in the Jewish holocaust and genocide in Rwanda. The book’s ambivalence about such crucial issues is its great drawback. The proposition that all it takes is positive thinking, introspection and leaps of the imagination for the law of attraction to become operational and your world to change, is somewhat too simplistic. Moreover to explain away people, who are enslaved, robbed, exterminated as victims of negative thinking is a bit over the top.

Nevertheless there’s a certain amount of sanguinity that one takes away from The Secret. But hope and optimism, albeit a good set of rules to live by, are not a sure fire formula for success. Unfortunately, the case for the magic formula of The Secret is overstated.