A Book I Picked and then I Dropped

I randomly picked up this novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, in a bookstore.  I began to read it, wanting to finish it, so I might write a book review on it.  But I got so distracted by the cruelties told in the novel that I stopped reading it and dropped my original intention of reading the book.  And what's worse is that I decided that I'd never read any Middle Eastern novels again because it's just too cruel  for me to read and "see" it.  I can't believe (not that I haven't known or learned) how these Middle Eastern husbands treated their wives.  But when it comes to the point that these ill treatments became so lively, so real in you active brain that you felt virtually seeing how these things were done, it became disruptive, distracting, and destructive to your emotion and mentality.  For thirty minutes, I had to put very much effort to try to pull myself back to the previous mode I was in.  And I just thought that emotional and mental dealings were too much of a sacrifice for just one book, though a good book.

I have no idea how others--those critics and book reviewers--can read a novel telling a story like A Thousand Splendid Suns.  Certainly, they've got to be experts and sure are much better readers than I am.

(Photo resource: eBay)