And the Mountains Echoed in Bound Together

Feb 05, 2013 Chrissie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: afghanistan, relationships, france, usa, greece, hf, downpour

Damn, And the Mountains Echoed made me cry. I just finished it. Gosh, why did it upset me so much?! And will others react as I have? Is it just stupid me? I can point at a million things that are wrong with the book....and yet, it has done something right since it has undeniably moved me. Rarely do books make me cry.

OK, here is what I think is going on, in my head and in my heart:

I will start with what is simple, but very important. This is the first book I have listened to where I would advise Damn, And the Mountains Echoed made me cry. I just finished it. Gosh, why did it upset me so much?! And will others react as I have? Is it just stupid me? I can point at a million things that are wrong with the book....and yet, it has done something right since it has undeniably moved me. Rarely do books make me cry.

OK, here is what I think is going on, in my head and in my heart:

I will start with what is simple, but very important. This is the first book I have listened to where I would advise very strongly that you read the paper book rather than listen to the audio version. There are three narrators: the author (Khaled Hosseini), a woman (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and a second male narrator (Navid Negahban). The latter two slur English words to such an extent that you must decipher what is being said by the context of the words. Cheek sounds like chick; swim sounds like "sweem"; breeze sounds like bees; words sounds like wards; shut sounds like shot; launches sounds like lunches. Must I go on? The woman's voice is so muted that you must increase the volume. I liked Hosseini's reading of the introductory fairy tale, but then later he enunciates every darn letter. Quite simply, the narration is unprofessional. Furthermore, why in the world have they even bothered to use three different narrators? The book shifts to different locations around the world - France, Greece and the US. I would have preferred three narrators: one fluent in French, one in Greek and one in American, or just one narrator that speaks fluent English. They all spoke what I think was meant to be English with an Afghan accent; let's just say poor English. Some of the characters lived in France since their early youth. The narration is so poor that it detracts from one's appreciation of the author's words. Read the paper book!

This book is about an Afghan family, starting at the end of the 40s and ending a decade into the 21st Century. It is about the how the 20th Century has split families. It isn't unusual today to find members of one family spread all over the world. What does this do to us? And what is the essence of family....if we do not live near each other and if we do not have daily contact, hands on contact. Are we still bound to each other? Does family remain family?

The book begins with a bedtime story, which is as I originally thought the central message of the entire book. So pay attention. The beginning is also the best part of the book, because there in the beginning you most intimately rub shoulders with the main characters. These characters will have children and grandchildren and spouses and friends and you never really come to know them as you do the first ones. The central theme of the book IS based on the choices that are made by the first characters we meet. Later chapters deal with one family and then another family or friend. They can almost be seen as separate stories, but yes they do all come together at the end. The problem is that the book does not succeed in bringing all of these diverse stories to life. Neither are all the different places brought to life. Afghanistan was well portrayed, but not Paris, not California, not Greece! The book tries to do too much. Or is it that Hosseini has best captured that which he knows best? I will credit him in his attempt to show what happens to "family" in today's globalized world.

But none of the above is really what brought the tears to my eyes. We love someone, and even if we try our hardest to make the best choices, even if we sacrifice our own personal needs, still one can be left with such emptiness. Sometimes that emptiness simply cannot be filled. Sometimes we try our best, but so much is misunderstood. Life is damn messy. There can be a wonderful blessing in forgetting. I know that sounds crazy, but it is true. The book explains this better than I have. ...more

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Jul 26, 2020 ☮Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020, favorites

4++

Abdullah as a boy has only his father, a new stepmother, and his sister Pari. Abdullah adored no one and nothing like his little sister Pari...

... he knew that in their mother’s dying, something of her had passed to Pari. Something of her cheerful devotion, her guilelessness, her unabashed hopefulness. Pari was the only person in the world who would never, could never, hurt him. Some days, Abdullah felt she was the only true family he had.

When Pari was six she is removed from his life, and th ...more

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Apr 28, 2014 Barbara rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2014-library-bk-grp

I think this author is a great writer. However, I just couldn't get into the book the way I wanted to.

At the beginning I really liked it. I thought, wow, I'm going to love this book. I loved the story about the Div and then when the story went on about the dad going to find his son and the decision he had to make whether to take his son back or leave him there.

Then the story went off in another direction for me and I just couldn't get into it. I read some of it and listened to some of it on au ...more

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Jun 06, 2013 Melissa rated it really liked it

This is one of those books that is hard to rate. Hosseini pulls you in with strong storytelling and rich language so that the book is much better than the average 3. On the other hand, the overall story ultimately does not live up to its promise of a sweeping family saga across generations and continents, etc., and many of the characters feel sketched in.

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Jul 04, 2013 Michelle Stie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, international-authors

I can't say enough about this beautiful, sad, gorgeously written book. Like The Kite Runner, there are moments of this novel that are hard to bear. That being said, I think Hosseini's ability to portray human relationships in all their nuances and as they grow, change, or breakdown over time is masterful.
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