And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

On Monday, July 6th, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

• The book had mixed reviews from our group. Some thought that the book paled by comparison to Hosseini’s first book, The Kite Runner. Some members did not find any of the characters sympathetic or worth caring about.  One member thought that the book was written by a ghost writer because the style was so vastly different from The Kite Runner.
• And then there were other members who did enjoy the book but found it confusing at times. After the first 100 pages, it took several pages into the each chapter to understand who Hosseini was talking about and what the connections were. Once we understood that most of the stories were a result of Pari and Abdullah separation it started to flow a little better.
• We talked about the author’s style of telling multiple stories with different perspectives. Our book group has read several novels using this style which seems to be popular lately. Some of us did not like this method but some thought it was good to hear different voices.
• We talked about whether there are situations where it’s best for a child to be separated from his or her family. In this particular case we thought it may have been best for Pari even though she did not have a loving mother in Nila. We discussed the Child Welfare culture in the United States and thought that there were some similarities.
• The entire group thought that there were stories that were unnecessary and did not add to the story’s theme. Even though we liked the story of Markos and the Warlord, we did not see the connection. And then there were other stories that we felt we wanted more information. Most of us spent the entire time waiting for Pari and Abdullah reunion and were sadly disappointed.  
• We talked about Pari’s perception of herself and how much it differed from Markos and Pari’s view of her. We thought that Nila was a terrible mother and those descriptions of Pari confirmed it.
• We talked about the various characters in the book and which ones we liked.
• We thought this book gave us a view of Afghanistan and its culture that we were unaware of so for that reason some of us enjoyed the story. But as to recommending the book, most of the group thought that they would not recommend this book but would recommend Hosseini’s The Kite Runner instead.

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.