<![CDATA[Things I've Been Silent About]]>

false <![CDATA[Things I've Been Silent About]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255754690m/2910034.jpg 2910034 7 Azar Nafisi, author of the beloved international bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, now gives us a stunning personal story of growing up in a family in Iran, moving memories of her life lived in thrall to a powerful and difficult mother, against the background of Iran during a time of revolution and change. A young girl’s pain over family secrets and a mother’s lost life, a young woman’s discovery of the power of sensuality in literature, the price a family pays for freedom in a country beset by political upheaval–these and other threads are woven together in this beautiful memoir, as a gifted storyteller once again uses her own life to transform the way we see the world and “reminds us of why we read in the first place” (Newsday). Azar Nafisi’s intelligent and complex mother, disappointed in her dreams of leading an important and romantic life, created mesmerizing fictions about herself, the past, her rich first husband who died at a young age, and her own family. As she talked to her children, she would disappear into these family stories, narratives of triumph that hid as much as they revealed. Nafisi’s father escaped into narratives of another kind–into the classic talks of Persian literature–telling his beloved daughter of the great heroes and heroines in Shahnamah, the Persian Book of Kings, and in other Persian classics. As her father began a series of love affairs, his daughter began to lie to her mother about her father’s infidelities, and about other events women were supposed to be silent about. Nafisi’s complicity in these childhood dramas ultimately led her to resist remaining silent about political, cultural, social, and personal injustices. Part detective story and part portrait of an exceptional woman, marriage, and mother-father-daughter struggle, Things I’ve Been Silent About is also a deeply personal reflection on women’s choices, and on how Azar Nafisi found inspiration for a different kind of woman’s life, first in stories by Persian writers and then in stories by Western writers, such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Reaching back in time to reflect on other generations in the Nafisi family, Things I’ve Been Silent About is also a powerful historical portrait of a family’s life that spans the twentieth century in Iran, during many periods of change leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979, which turned Azar Nafisi’s beloved Iran into a religious dictatorship. Writing of the strength and intelligence that allowed her mother to serve in Parliament, even while her father, once mayor of Tehran, was in jail, Nafisi also explores the coffee hours her mother held all her life, where at first women came together to gossip, to tell fortunes, and to give silent acknowledgment of things never spoken about, and then evolved to where men and women would meet to openly discuss the unfolding revolution. This unforgettable portrait of a woman, a family, and of a troubled beloved homeland is a stunning book that millions of readers will embrace, a new triumph from an author who is a modern master of the memoir. 2888480 30 12 2008 Things I've Been Silent About total:390|5:57|4:119|3:151|2:48|1:15| 390 1325 1343 130 3 5 false false Fri Feb 27 21:05:44 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 21:26:56 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Feb 26 10:16:39 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 05:15:27 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Feb 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue May 26 14:59:08 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 17:14:17 -0700 2009
In this book, Mafisi tells us more about her actual life. Her previous bestseller, “Reading Lolita in Tehran” described what it was like to teach in Iran e...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 11:45:57 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 11:53:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 20:10:03 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 17:23:07 -0700 2009
A vast majority of readers can sympath...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 16:22:17 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 06:30:59 -0700 2009
Last summer i read ms. nafisi's first memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran. After completing that book i thought I knew so much about this incredible woman's life. I was wrong. She covered a smaller portion of her life in that memoir. That book ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 09:35:49 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 09:44:09 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 11:50:17 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 20:05:48 -0700 2009
This book is simpler and more honest. It's not really about Nafisi at all...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Feb 05 10:02:44 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 10:02:44 -0800 2009 Family history is almost always messy. When tangled up with revolution, it can get downright chaotic. That Things I've Been Silent About is a less-focused effort than Nafisi's first book, then, is unsurprising. The Iranian exile (she's lived in the United States since 1997) continues to display a ma...

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There is one quote I particularly loved:
"When I think of my father's dream of a happy marriage, I am often reminded of a recurring theme in fiction: how our dreams become ta...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 03:10:13 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 10:42:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 11:28:36 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 11:29:15 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 10:41:50 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 10:46:33 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 20:34:12 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 23:45:16 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 09:17:48 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 09:30:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 27 14:24:05 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 14:28:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Mar 12 10:20:40 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 07:11:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2910034