And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

This is a somewhat splintered collection of inter-related short stories set out in 9 chapters. Spanning from the 1950s to present day, each chapter is told from the point of view of a different, seemingly unrelated, character whose connection to the main thread of the story is then slowly unveiled. On reflection, I don’t believe it matters whether you read the chapters in sequence, though the starting point must be the parable in the first chapter, the tone of which is reflected throughout the entire novel. The point is, it is disjointed & jumbling up the chapters would not make it any more so.

The clear pervasive theme is of complicated familial relationships and the way past choices haunt the present, demonstrating the far-reaching ripple effect of these choices. What may seem like a good idea at the time is, in hindsight, very far from it. I particularly like an observation made by one of the characters about the perilously thin line between a visionary & a fool. But then again, it isn’t a new insight.

I confess I did not finish ‘The Kite Runner’ some years back, having set it aside halfway through after I could not stomach what I perceived to be bad writing about a string of contrived coincidences. And though this time I did finish ‘And the Mountains Echoed’, I cannot say that my opinion of this author has changed. I would sum up this book as time wasted. For me, that is, as a reader. But no doubt legions would disagree with me.