Characters
"an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, acceptance"
Mariam
What happens on Thursdays?
Jalil comes and visits Mariam at the Kolba on this day.
"Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman's face is her husband's business only."
Rasheed
lingering
to stay somewhere beyond the usual or expected time
What did Nana call Mariam when the sugar bowl fell?
"a clumsy little harami."
He called her his little flower.
Jalil
What item did Mariam break of her mother?
The sugar bowl of the tea set that was the sole relic Nana had of her mother.
"I wish my father had had the stomach to sharpen one of his knives and do the honorable thing. It might have been better for me. Better for you too maybe. It would have spared you the grief of knowing what you are...He didn't have the dil, the heart for it."
Nana?
culpable
guilty, responsible
What does Rasheed say about Fariba and Hakim?
She's a gossiper and the husband thinks that he's an intellectual but is actually a mousy person.
Who has "blond curls, turquoise green eyes, dimpled cheeks, high cheekbones, and a pout of the lower lip"?
Laila - she inherited it from Mammi's grandmother
"a pari"
What does Mariam find when she returns from Jalil's home?
Nana made good on her threat and hung herself.
"Like a compass needle that always points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman."
Who is Nana?
to figure out, understand
surmise
What happened in the summer of 1973?
King Zahir Shah, who had ruled for forty years, had been overthrown in a bloodless coup
What does Laila first notice about Rasheed?
His scent, of cigarette smoke and sweet cologne
What is alarming about the photo of Rasheed's first wife?
The way her body tried to wriggle out of Rasheed's hands
"To make nothing your business. Even your own sons going to war. How I pleaded with you. But you were buried with your nose in those cursed books and let our sons go like they were a pair of haramis"
Mammi/Fariba
not changing or capable of change; staying the same
invariably
How does Rasheed respond to Mariam's proposition of a proper burial?
Rasheed refuses since he already had to bury his first son and refuses to bury another.
How did Mariam feel about the Burqua while in town?
It was only a one-way window. She was an observer and not able to be seen or judged by outsiders.
Why does Laila agree to marry Rasheed so quickly?
She is pregnant with Tariq's baby.
"Women have always had it hard in this country Laila but they're probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they've ever had before"
Babi
in a reserved manner
demure
How does Rasheed afford to give Laila a ring?
He sold Mariam's old ring