A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

I wasn't entirely convinced by Mr Hosseini's first offering (The Kite Runner) - a review you'll find in this blog. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a much better novel - the writing has improved tremendously, there are far fewer scattered untranslated terms, and the plot line is much clearer, the characters more developed, and it is less of a polemic. It is obvious that the author is beating a drum about the horrors of Afghanistan, and the terrors of every form of government since the overthrow of the monarchy (and why not he is a refugee of sorts himself), but the characters are not entirely stereotypes. The book looks at the history of two women - beginning with Mariam in the first section, Laila in the second, and then the two together in alternating chapters. Mariam is the lovechild of a successful businessman, who is forced into a marriage with an older widower. As the soviets invade Mariam's life goes downhill in line with the fortunes of the country. Laila (much younger than Mariam) comes from an academic family, with brothers who are in the anti-Soviet Jihad. She becomes the second wife to the widower. Throughout the rise and fall and recovery of Afghanistan mirror the fates of the characters. Compared with The Kite Runner this is a more successful story - there are fewer incredible co-incidences and shortcut solutions to problems, the politics are more easily woven into the tale, and the last few pages are genuinely moving, and thought provoking. Rating: 8/10

If you can walk You can dance - Marion Molteno

Now I didn't think there was a book I couldn't finish, and normally I get through a book in a week maximum, but I have to admit this book defeated me. I'm not sure what it is, because the subject matter superficially attracted me - a politically active South African in the appartheid era escaping persecution - should be the recipe for a real page turner, but this is just tepid nonsense. The central character Jennie is so self obsessed and has an unrealistically romantic view of life that I felt like phoning the South African police and turning her in. A bit like the member of the audience at a particularly bad theatrical rendition of the Diary of Anne Frank who shouted 'She's in the attic' when the Nazi soldiers turned up. Anyway, Jennie has a feeling for music and sees it as the solution to everything - 'slow' children are cured through clapping and drumming workshops, Jennie meets an equally self centred composer called Neil who teaches her to play the viola without reading music - just being at one with the instrument. Even when she goes to Lusaka her notion of aiding the freedom fighters is to teach refugee children to discover empathy with the pulse of Africa through music. Please give me a break - overwhelming oppression? Take up a gourd and rattle some seeds. And oh the sentimentality about the purity of the African natural soul. Pass me a sick bucket! Rating: 3/10