A Bleak House

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini
Bloomsbury

If I were to ask you list five attributes that characterize the "perfect read", what would they be? I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about what appeals to me and I've discovered that there are some relatively specific criteria that I apply when deciding whether or not I enjoy a text. While I happily acknowledge that the act of reading is usually a very phenomenological, often personal experience, I thought it might interest some of you to know what's considered a good read by the D-E-S. Here goes:

1. Back to basics. For me, the perfect read usually has a strong plot, interesting subtext(s) and characters that show some kind of "real" growth throughout the course of the novel.
2. Lyrical descriptions. While I can appreciate a stark economy of words, I'm a sucker for a well constructed turn of phrase that invokes my senses and makes me feel the text.
3. An absent author. I HATE literature that is overtly didactic and honestly, I don't really care what the author thinks. Let me piece it together by what the characters say, do, observe -- don't whack me over the head with it.
4. Layers of narration. Books that have stories within stories and multiple narrators almost always grab my interest. I think that why I like Fantasy so much -- the view is always shifting.
5. Another world. When I can close my eyes and see myself in the world that the author describes, that's when I know I'm reading a good book.

In case you were wondering, I decided to do a "top five" this week because Hosseini's book is so amazing that, well, I just can't write about it. It's too intimidating. Set in the streets of Kabul, the novel tells the story of two Afghani women, separated by a generation, who live through their country's incessant turmoil -- from the overthrowing of the monarchy, to the war against the Soviets, to the eventual rule of the Taliban. Part history, part social commentary, part love story, A Thousand Splendid Suns is, in a word, unforgettable. Please read it.