And the Mountains Echoed

After a less than rapturous acclaim from the critics, I have to admit that Khaled Hosseini's latest novel And the Mountains Echoed (#344) has been languishing on my bookshelf.  However, my book club choose it as our November selection so in the end I was glad it was there.  I was also very pleasantly surprised by it.

Perhaps the critics didn't like this book because they didn't perceive it to be every bit as brutal in its own way as The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns,   They've claimed that there are too many families here, and that the end isn't neatly tied up in a bow.  I disagree.  To me, this book, instead of being one long narrative, is a series of interconnected novellas, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out how the stories are connected.  It's a circle, with the first tale chronicling a separation and the final one a reunion which comes too late for one of the participants.  The other stories in And the Mountains Echoed are all smaller moons circling the orbit of those who have been forcibly separated.

Again, this type of storytelling reminds me of Olive Kitteridge and Where Somebody Waits (See my post of 10/22/13.).  I find the change of viewpoint interesting here; it broadens the scope of the story although the focus always remains on family.  It also led my mind to wander down some fraught "What if....?" pathways I might not have otherwise thought of.  Isn't that what good literature is supposed to do?  If you choose to read this book, I don't think you'll be disappointed.