A Thousand Splendid Suns

I recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns, second novel by Khaled Hossieni and I am stunned. As I was reading the book there were moments I needed to close the book, cry with Layla and grudge with Mariam and then I had to take a deep breath and continue reading.

When I started the book I knew it will be difficult to read specially after reading Kite Runner the first novel by same author. At the end again I was surprised how brutal and violence the life can be and how lucky we are.

The story sets in Afghanistan during Soviet war in Afghanistan and Civil war.
Khaled's story starts with Mariam, she is 14 years old lives with her mother in a suburb area of Heart. Her father visits her on a weekly basis. She is a child out of the marriage and this is prohibited in countries like Afghanistan therefore she has to be hidden from others. She loves her father but her mother doesn’t believe he loves her the same way and she thinks weekly visit is just a duty in his burden.

One day when she is waiting for her father to take her to the cinema, after failing to come she decides to find his father’s house that lives with other wives and children.

The dream of living with her father soon turns to a nightmare; she must marry to an older man, a shoe maker 12-15 years older than her who is abusive and violent.

Then story turns to a Layla, she is born almost the same time when Layla lost her child. We watch her to grow in a middle class family. The father is intellectual and he taught life and reading books and history. She has a grieving mother who suffers from depression in loosing of her two sons in war.

We meet Layla’s childhood friend who lost one of his leg passing by mine filed. She is growing up in the Soviet Union power in Afghanistan. She has the right of going to school. Then life get harder on people who lived in Afghanistan, when the childhood friend leaves the city layla’s family decide to leave the country too. But life had a different arrangement for Layla and her family.

Layla and Mariam’s life will change forever.

The book is a fiction novel but gives us a decent and not fictional suffering of ordinary people and the consequences of the war in people lives. The change of the regimes means change in believes, politic, economic and culture. In countries like Afghanistan the significant changes are toward women since they have the least right in the country. Women forced to give up their jobs, universities and schools.

Female doctors who were practicing until yesterday can't practice anymore, most hospitals only runs for men and only few for women. In women hospitals there are not much equipment and sometime they need do surgery without anesthesia.


In My opinion “A Thousands Splendid Suns” can't be claimed as a literature book nor can be references as a history book but we can give Mr Hosseini the credit of giving us a decent picture of the three decades of lives of ordinary people in Afghanistan. People who suffered, killed, tortured, lost family and friends as a result of the war in the past 3 decades.

Streets of New York City

It has been almost 2 years since I moved to New York City. I always been in love with this city and always reminded me of Tehran. Maybe sounds a bit joke to you but it really reminds me of Tehran.

Very expensive city, busy and crowded always and Times Square with those gigantic billboards reminds me of Revolution square in Tehran, Still funny hah?

Sometimes when I walk along the street in New York City I carry on my camera and take shots. Sometimes you can’t even imagine this could be New York City. Some area people are very poor and some area extremely rich.

I will write more, let us see pictures now.

Cassandra’s Dream Latest Movie By Woody Allen

I read several reviews about “Cassandra’s Dream” latest movie by Woody Allen. There wasn’t any good news for Mr. Allen. I expected to see a mediocre movie about life, murder, guilt and choices in life. By the end of the movie I was thrilled again. I am a long time Woody Allen fan and I can’t stop myself of going to see his movies. After movie I thought maybe all the negative reviews that Mr. Allen receives in recent years comes from his personal choices in life and in my opinion it is true that artist’s personal life can effect his/her professional work in some degree.
In any case I always loved his works and I think he is brilliant.

Personally I liked when he was filming his movies in the streets of New York City, his beloved city which recently became mine as well however he seems quite comfortable with London and its culture.

Cassandra’s Dream is set in London England; story is about two working class brothers who are struggling with the daily life. However they have their own life but the two brothers are very close and they see each other in a regular basis during the week or meet on Sunday lunch in their parent’s house and listen to their parent’s argue.

Ian (Ewan McGregor) is the one who has materialistic ideas and likes to climb up the success, get involve with hotel investment and tries to impress her girlfriend who she is an actress.

The other brother Terry (Colin Farrell ) already has a steady girl, Kate and works as a mechanic. He has the habit of gambling and alcohol use. Ian trying to impress more his new girlfriend so borrows money and cars from brother’s shop and will soon discover he is in a big debt as a result of gambling. He wins 30,000 pound in one night but looses all at once the next night plus 60,000 pound.

There is no one to help the brothers but their rich uncle who he is in plastic surgery business and always gets glorifies by his sister (brother’s mother). After speaking with uncle, he promises to help the brothers but asks for a favor in return. One of his business associate will be testifying against him and should be eliminate as soon as possible otherwise he looses everything. The crime itself is very simple nothing imaginative or hard.

But Mr. Allen is mostly interested in building up the pressure and emotional conflict in two brother’s life before the and after the crime. One of the highlight is using the wooden gun that can be destroyed after the crime but destroying the evidence doesn’t mean it has been washed away from the two brothers’s heart or mind.

Terry is the one who get hit the most by the crime and refuge himself in more drugs an alcohol. Ian handles their situation with more confidence maybe he is more aware of the reward. Mr.

Allen in his recent movies “Match Point” and “Cassandra’s Dream” emphasizes in human nature. Nature and energy which is inside us and make us make choices in our life depend on the circumstances. Being said that I am in no position to judge anybody or analyze psychology of human being but maybe all he is trying to show us is how human being can respond in different circumstances in life.

We all have choices in our life and when it comes to making one is finally is us who makes the decision based on the circumstances and finally is us who should suffers or get rewarded from the consequences of the choices. And finally maybe Mr. Allen is trying to say making the decision really shows who we really are.

Edward Hopper, Washington DC and Myself

Last summer I was in Washington DC visiting friend of mine who migrated with her family from Iran and landed in Washington DC. By accident I have noticed in the same weekend there is an opening of Edward Hopper exhibition. I had seen couple of his work in Whitney Museum in New York City and I fell in love with his work. He painted landmarks of American realism combined with loneliness, isolation and melancholy. His pain and sorrow and loneliness were familiar even though most of his painting that I saw painted in New York.

So the next day I went to the exhibition with excitement, I was eager to see rest of his work which I heard there are many. And I fell in love again. The exhibition contained about 48 oil paintings, 34 watercolors, and 12 prints. There was a documentary film which includes archival and new footage of the places that inspired him the most in New York and New England, including his boyhood and his studio in Washington Square where he lived for 50 years.

Edward Hopper born in Nyack, New York in 1882 and he lived almost 50 years in Washington Square in New York City. He studied illustration and painting in NewYork Institute of Art and Design largely under Robert Henri. For his formal education he traveled to Europe three times between 1906 and 1910 but remained unaffected by current French and Spanish experiments in cubism.

Most of his paintings portray scenes in New York or New England, both country and city scenes, all with a spare, homely quality—deserted streets, half-empty theaters, gas stations, railroad tracks, rooming houses. One of his best-known works, Nighthawks (1942, Art Institute of Chicago), shows an all-night café, its few uncommunicative customers illuminated in the pitiless glare of electric lights.
Although Hopper's work was outside the mainstream of mid-20th-century abstraction, his simplified schematic style was one of the influences on the later representational revival and on pop art. He died May 15, 1967, in New York City.

Manon Lescaut

January 30 2008


Last night I saw Manon Lescaut, an opera by Giacomo Puccini in Metropolitan Opera in New York City..

The story is based on a novel called “Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut” published in 1731. The story was controversial at the time of publication but despite this fact many people read the story.

Set in France and Louisiana in the early 18th century the story follows lovers named Des Grieux comes from wealthy and noble family, Manon a beautiful woman who fall for each other and ran away and get settled in Paris.
Des Grriux struggles to satisfy Manon for her taste of luxury and wealth and after a while earning and loosing money in gambling Manon leaves him for an older but richer man. The older man brings her money and luxury but the passionate love life between Manon and Des Grriux is missing in her life.She struggles between wealth and passion. Des Grriux convinces her to come back to him but she gets arrested by the old man while she was running away with Des Grriux and she will set to go to America which Des Grriux begged to be taken too.

Finally the two lovers settled down in Louisiana where the absence of the class differences allows them to live in peace. After a while Des Grriux reviles to the governor that the two lovers are not married and governor asked Des Grriux and Manon to be married.
However governor nephew falls for Manon and Des Grriux challenges him for a duel and knocks him unconscious. Fearing he might kill the man the couple flees to settle in an English neighborhood but Manon dies of exhaustion on the way in desert and Des Grriux returns to France to become a critic.

This is the third opera by Puccini and his first success, the first performance of Manon Lescaut took place in Teatro Regio in Turin in 1893. Although there was another opera made in France based on the same story called Manon but Puccini felt Manon is a heroine woman and she should not fail in wining the hearth of the public and despite of the fight with the producer he wrote the opera which was his first success.

The opera sets in 4 acts, the first act is in front of the Inn which Manon traveling in the company of her brother who they share the coach with Geronte, an old wealthy man. Manon meets Des Grriux who is a student and she agreed to meet him later and then they flee together. The Second act is set in Geronte house in Paris, the design is very colorful, elegant and beautifully done and the taste of the 18th century architect can be sensed in the set. In this act you learn that Manon left Des Grriux due to lack of providing elegant life however she misses the passionate love of him for her.
The third act is in front of the prison and heading to America, sad and passionate aria with the deep voices of the tenor and soprano. You can feel the deep sadness in Des Grriux voice in farewell and regret and disappointment in Manon voices. The fourth and final act is set in Louisiana desert an in my opinion is the weakest act in this opera in terms of design and the story lines. The last act who we learn only that the two lovers are in desert and Manon is about to die but there is no information of how did they arrive to this point and what happened after they moved to America if they were successful at first place. There was nothing exquisite about the stage design for this act and if there wasn’t for the powerful aria and great performances it could have turn to big disappointment.

Despite the fact that if you haven’t read the story and you may not be able to follow the story at some point in the opera but I still believe the Manon Lescaut Opera is a fine opera with great performance and beautiful setting. Even if you are not an opera lover, only by listening to the voices of the tenor and soprano and great arias you can feel that you have been taken to heaven and you have no choice but to laugh when the Manon get excited by the wealth of the old man, tries to fool him and fails to flee with Des Grriux or cry with Des Grriux when Manon dies in his arm. After all is a deep and sad love story.

The opera runs in Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center, New York City (MET) through 2007-2008 season.

My first post in this blog

This is only my first post in this blog. I am not sure what am I would like to post here but thought just give it a try. Mostly I like to write in Farsi but haven’t figured out yet how. Maybe I should move to Persian blog.

Anyway here I am with first post.