The Patience Stone is a novel written by Atiq Rahimi from Afghanistan.
In Persian folklore, Syngue Sabour is the name of a magical black stone, a patience stone, which absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. It is believed that the day it explodes, after having received too much hardship and pain, will be the day of the Apocalypse. It would only a perspective to say that the Syngue Sabour here in the context, is the man lying brain-dead, listening; or is the woman, his wife who after so many years of patience is exploding with the details of her physical, mental and sexual sufferings living with him…
I usually enjoy the writing style of simple, short sentences with uncertain pauses, ignoring the rules of grammar, but the story written as a monologue was not very impactful. Having read some extraordinary monologues by Dostoevsky in ‘Notes from the Underground’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, this comes out as a little detached for me.
Reading translations has its affects and could be a reason but content wise too, I was expecting to hear more about war and friendships in this context apart from man-woman rants. Do we not develop some fantastic bonds when we are so much in pain ? Do we not have always have a good side along with life’s hardships ? I could not complete the picture of the woman in the story with only pains and no courage…with only defense to what she did and no contentment of doing it…
While choosing books from around the world, my first preference was South Asian sub continent. I thought I would enjoy the context and relate easily…But reading books from Afghanistan and Pakistan, it seems we are talking of a different world all together. No doubt India is not very far and has its own set of problems with respect to women suppression and atrocities but when we see that in some parts, women are fighting to be considered human, it is difficult to comprehend the trauma…
Disha 