Would recommend: Not really

I can understand why people enjoy A Thousand Splendid Suns because it's incredibly compelling and quite the page-turner. I sped through it because each chapter ended with a hook that made me need to continue on, but I felt manipulated, as though Hosseini inserted marketing elements to make up for what I felt was subpar writing.

I felt beaten over the head by the obvious symbolism and full-circle-ism I expected from reading The Kite Runner. Could the parents be any more Shakespearean? And, please, could we wave the foreshadowing flags any more wildly? When the foreshadowing is fulfilled, I don't need to be reminded of that first time that I read that it was going to happen, thank you.

It was a good experience for me to read about the lives of Afghan women, but I would prefer a less flowery, less contrived version. I'll take an authentic memoir, please.