Reading Lolita in Tehran a Memoir in Books Review
"She resented the fact that her veil, which to her was a symbol of her sacred human relationship to God, had now become an instrument of power, turning the women who wore them into political signs and symbols." page 103
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi.
Random House, New York, my edition 2004, originally published 2003.
Adult memoir, 358 pages including reading group guide.
Lexile: not all the same leveled
AR Level: 8.four (worth 25.0 points) .
Annotation: Despite the reading level, this is an adult book not recommended for children.
As the title states, a memoir of the author's career in Tehran told through the lens of various literature she read and taught.
This volume is unusually bundled. Rather than follow a chronological or topical society, this memoir is broken up into four sections that each deal with a particular novel or author that Nafisi studied and taught. Therefore the various sections might deal with her ain university days, her early teaching years, the forbidden grade she secretly taught in her domicile, etc.
The first 2 sections are novels, and the second ii are authors. She starts with the surprising, even shocking choice of Lolita, and compares it to the state of affairs in Iran in unusual ways. This section focuses mainly on her course. Part two deals with The Bully Gatsby, and again focuses mostly on her educational activity, this time her early years at the University of Tehran when Gatsby was already a controversial choice and was ultimately put on trial. These first 2 sections exercise mention other works by the aforementioned authors and make more full general comparisons, but they focus mainly on one title.
Part three focuses on James which had me at a disadvantage as I have read very footling James. This part of the story in particular showed me how much harder information technology is to motility through this story if you aren't comfy with the literary works Nafisi is referring to. Austen is the focus of the final section, and here I am back on familiar ground. She compares the menstruation of Austen'south novels to life in Tehran, and draws some interesting parallels.
At times Nafisi'due south writing seems to have an otherworldly quality, almost making the fiction they read together seem more existent than the other, more disturbing aspects of life. I recollect this was purposeful as she frequently mentions how reading and writing and creating were what made her and her students feel live, and why they were willing to risk then much for information technology.
However the chronology was a chip off-putting. It initially felt similar the story would be about the secret literature study grouping she ran in her dwelling house. Notwithstanding after the beginning section, she goes back to her teaching career. While some of her study grouping students come up in that (she met them through instruction), information technology's just afterwards this hundred page detour that she returns to the book group.
Personally I as well have an interest in didactics and literature, so I was able to keep going, but if teaching and literary criticism aren't of interest to you, there's some parts y'all might want to skim. Likewise, this was at to the lowest degree my third fourth dimension reading this volume – from the library when information technology came out, then again for a book group, and now someone gave me a copy then I decided to review information technology before passing it along. While I am a re-reader, I don't see myself gaining much more from reading information technology again.
Although I've reviewed other books on this web log, I recall this is probably the first volume I ever read about Iran, back when this was on the bestseller listing and very popular. It was interesting rereading since I've now seen Iran from other perspectives.
One thing I'thou noticing though, is that all the voices that come to my attention are very much on the liberal side. In fact, among all the books I've read that are memoirs, biographies, or nonfiction out of the Center East, the only positive or religious one I can remember of is The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. Not that horrible things didn't happen in that book as well, simply it had a different attitude. Rereading this I was wondering what happened, did the land truly kill all the artists and memoir writers who were religious or create too much fearfulness for them to own and retell their ain stories? Information technology seems like the devout Muslim perspective on these events is missing.
That's not a criticism of this detail book though. I do remember this volume volition mostly interest literature nerds, or subsequently that those who are interested in Islamic republic of iran. If you similar biographies more than than literary criticism, some aspects of Reading Lolita might frustrate or diameter y'all, merely as a whole the book is fairly interesting.
A teen could probably read this book but I wouldn't use it with younger students. As y'all can guess from the championship there is adult content in the literature and lives discussed. The book besides assumes familiarity with almost if not all of the main novels.
Source: https://colorfulbookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/03/04/review-reading-lolita-in-tehran/
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