Sitting at Gatwick Airport a few weeks ago waiting for my flight to Zakynthos I twiddled my thumbs as the rest of my family read their books. So not wanting to be the odd one out I made my way to WHSmiths and after much deliberation picked ‘And The Mountains Echoed’ by Khaled Hosseini. Not having read any of his other books my choice was made from the recommendation of Richard and Judy, and also by the film ‘The Kite Runner’.
As I started to read I prepared myself for the emotional roller-coaster that I had been promised by the reviews, and waited with tissue in hand to help wipe away the tears, and waited and waited and then waited some more. Until the last word on the last page I clung onto a futile hope that my heartstrings could still be yanked and my emotions would suddenly burst their banks. Alas nothing.
So my overarching view of the book is disappointment but that’s not to say that as an author I didn’t learn a lot from reading the book. The story I think lacks cohesion and also has a weak plot that doesn’t seem to ever go anyway. There were many mini stories within the main story that never got resolved so I was left with more questions than answers.
Leaving the plot to one side the two areas that had me captivated were firstly the way the author builds his characters and gives them life. The most fascinating character for me was Nila Wahdati and I would have been more than happy for the story to have focused more on her life. She perfectly captured that difficult synergy between West and East and the reasons why the two can never truly merge. The second area is the way he creates beautiful images of the places within his stories. The story travels to many destinations including Afghanistan, Greece and the United States. He perfectly captures the sense of those places and you can almost smell and feel the culture as you read.
I focused heavily on plot and action for my first novel ‘The Stolen Soul of Somita’, but for my next novel what I will attempt to achieve is more character development and try to emulate Khaled Hossien’s wonderful ability to place you right in the middle of some faraway place.
Harbinder Mathadu 