Morning Coffee- Book Review “The Patience Stone”
Book Review written by Linda L. Authors, Atiq Rahimi, Polly McLean, Khaled Hosseini
This little gem of a book is only 142 pages long and once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. It was originally written in French in 2008 and just recently translated. And Khaled Hosseini, who wrote The Kite Runner, wrote the introduction.
Its theme is based on the Persian myth of a magical black stone that absorbs the troubles of those who confide in it. But in this book, this stone is a human being, an Afghani man who is lying comatose in his home while his wife of 10 years and mother of his two young daughters, is taking care of him. In a long monologue she opens her heart to him and reveals truths that she has kept inside of her for too long.
She resents him, resents the war that has immobilized him, resents her whole life which has been one of subterfuge and lies. Slowly, she reveals the truth and slowly we get to know her, understand her, and identify with her, especially as some of her revelations are of an explicit nature as she talks about their marital relations. In the meantime, their world is exploding around them. There is an unnamed petty war going on, soldiers bent on death and destruction and their safety is at risk in general.
I loved voice of the woman. I identified with her and felt real chills as she quietly cared for the man and told him her innermost secrets which kept getting deeper and more profound as the book moved along, creating a rising tension that kept my eyes wide and my heart beating until the inevitable conclusion.
I loved this book and highly recommend it.
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