Reading "Lolita" in Tehran

published	2004 by Fourth Estate
first published	2003
binding	Paperback
isbn	0007178484 (isbn13: 9780007178483)
pages	368
description	We all have dreams -- things we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisi's dream and of the nightmare that made it come true. ...more [close] We all have dreams -- things we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisi's dream and of the nightmare that made it come true. For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were reading -- Pride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolita -- their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran. Nafisi's account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members, and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisi's class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that preached falsehoods of "the Great Satan," she decided to let him put Gatsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense. Azar Nafisi's luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran–Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women's lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice.
date added	12-08-06 edit book

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suz rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

05/10/07

Read in July, 2005

recommends it for: Americans interested in understanding Iran

Reviewer: L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" from Amazon

Imagine...Having to hide a satellite dish for fear of being arrested and thrown in prison,having to hide your face with a veil,your body with a robe,your head with a scarf,and God help you if a couple of loose strands of hair are sticking out. Imagine living under such a strict regime that a woman can not walk down the street with a man who is not her husband,father or brother,of having to scramble to different tables...more Reviewer: L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" from Amazon

Imagine...Having to hide a satellite dish for fear of being arrested and thrown in prison,having to hide your face with a veil,your body with a robe,your head with a scarf,and God help you if a couple of loose strands of hair are sticking out. Imagine living under such a strict regime that a woman can not walk down the street with a man who is not her husband,father or brother,of having to scramble to different tables in a restaurant where a raid is going on, if you are sitting with a man who is just a friend. Imagine being subjected to body searches for no reason, of being jailed and quite possibly executed for having an opinion not accepted by that regime.Imagine the books you love, great and classic literature by Nabokov,Austen,James,and Fitzgerald, hard to come by and considered evil propaganda. And if fearing what your own countrymen can do to you is not enough, now imagine all that, with bombs going off constantly for years, landing so close they flatten your neighbors house and kill everyone in it. This was everyday life, a battleground of fear from all sides, for professor and intellectual Azar Nafisi. She only wanted to read, teach and discuss her favorite works of fiction.

Those are just a few of the injustices and life threatening situations, described in "Reading Lolita In Tehran".
After refusing to wear a veil to her job as a teacher of Literature, sticking to her own agenda of books considered controversial, Nafisi formed her own little group of women to study the great books mentioned above. She considered them "her girls", like an Iranian Miss Jean Brodie. They discussed the great works of Lolita, The Great Gatsby(this one was put on trial by her class at the University - imagine putting Gatsby on trial!), Pride and Prejudice among others, as they met in secret at Nafisi's home sans the robes and veils revealing their jeans and bright colored T-shirts, along with their inner most thoughts. They saw themselves as the heroines of the fiction they read. They discussed their sometimes unimaginable situations,their deep faith,the deaths of their friends, and the political times they lived in.

Azar Nafisi writes of how this group came to be, how these young women defied authority by studying unacceptable fiction. The girls themselves each have quite a background and stories of chilling experiences. Considering themselves lucky for only getting 5 years in prison for expressing their opinions instead of death in some cases.You can't help but feel a bond with each one of them. Nafisi also takes us back to the years before the group. She writes of life of in the "Islamic Republic of Iran",of teaching at the University of Tehran, and the extreme authoritative figures that ruled. Her writing seems to go off on tangents and some times it is a while before we are brought back full circle to the point, but I have to say, that every word she writes seems important to this story, and well worth reading through. She brilliantly interweaves the theme and characters of the books with the way of life in Iran.

This book left me deep in thought about the things I read in it. It was an up close and personal look at life we've heard about, but always seemed so far away. It not only touched me deeply and emotionally but I learned so much about the history and politics of the country as well. It certainly made me appreciate my own life much more.

Highly recommended read for everyone, and may be an especially deep discussion for book club groups.
It is quite a bit to absorb, but one that I will read again someday...Enjoy the read...Laurie
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Laurae1212 rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

04/23/08

Read in March, 2008

I am a lover of books. I am a lover of history. I am a lover of cultures. Consequently, I expected to love this book. Sadly, I found my dissappointment growing with each page I turned. The premise of the novel was certainly interesting- exploring times, the way that they were viewed, the oppression of women, religious fanaticism and political regimes that adopted Sharia, family, and the overall way that a country grew dissillusioned with iteself through novels was certainly an interesting one. Y...more I am a lover of books. I am a lover of history. I am a lover of cultures. Consequently, I expected to love this book. Sadly, I found my dissappointment growing with each page I turned. The premise of the novel was certainly interesting- exploring times, the way that they were viewed, the oppression of women, religious fanaticism and political regimes that adopted Sharia, family, and the overall way that a country grew dissillusioned with iteself through novels was certainly an interesting one. Yet, the novel failed to fulfill its promise. I was very hopeful at the beginning, I quite enjoyed the section on Lolita, and I feel I would have even had I not read Nabokov previously. However, then, as we turned to Gatsby, that initial love died. Now, don't get me wrong, it had nothing to do with Gatsby itself. I adore The Great Gatsby and F.Scott Fitzgerald. But there was such an abrupt shift in time and place, and even in character- I lost all connection I had to the girls I had grown attached to, and I no longer felt any attachment to the author herself. Suddenly, she started to become very self-centered. Some of her complaints seemed too petty, after all there are problems within every nation, but more than that, it was not that she sought refuge in her books, but that she expected others to do the same that annoyed me. I enjoyed the actual analysis on Gatsby, but I the author grew more and more conceited as it went on. It just continued from there on. The novel continued to offer disconnected snapshots of life, that while powerful, never allowed me to truly emphasize because as quickly as they came they faded. Always there was a fleeing to books. And while I could see how the books connected, none seemed to resonate with the actual problems in the country as much as Lolita had. Gatsby and the failed dream I could understand- by Daisy Miller I was lost. Now, admittedly, I have never much enjoyed James, but I found that besides the point, asI also disliked other sections dealing with books I enjoyed. I was truly hoping for the book to redeem itself with an intelligent and relevant discussion of Pride and Prejudice. It failed utterly. I found the end dissatisfying, less connected than anything previously, and it had even lost what had made it charming to begin with- no longer was there an insightful discussion of novels, nor did I feel anything for the author or even the students much at this point. They were completely removed from me, I saw them through a lens, as studies not as actual people. Since this is a memoir, and these people are all real, this is a great failing. They are people who are supposed to come alive, and I felt as they were besotted with themselves, their own pretension, particularly Nafisi's, was unbearable. There were some positive aspects of the book- it gave me a great insight, if often tinged- I felt Nafisi was too biased, I understand why, but I thought that she regarded all of the revolutionaries as inferior beings, not intellectual in the least simply because they had different ideals- into the Iranian revolution and the culture there, and gave me new insights into some of my favorite novels. I am only saddened that the clear bias and narcissism of the author ruined this experience for me. It could have been a great intellectual and cultural study. As it was, it was merely decent, and while the subject material was engaging, I was wishing for it to end....less

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Nicola rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

05/29/07

bookshelves: nonfiction

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in May, 2007

This memoir about the power of books in a time of crisis and oppression definitely falls short of the transitive powers the novels it details possess. Though the overall message of the book is a powerful one, its disjointed narrative structure, organized by theme rather than true chronological order, left me more confused than inspired and did not help in my understanding of the bigger picture.

For someone fairly out of the loop as far as politics and world issues go, especially issues that ...more This memoir about the power of books in a time of crisis and oppression definitely falls short of the transitive powers the novels it details possess. Though the overall message of the book is a powerful one, its disjointed narrative structure, organized by theme rather than true chronological order, left me more confused than inspired and did not help in my understanding of the bigger picture.

For someone fairly out of the loop as far as politics and world issues go, especially issues that started before I was born, I was very confused as to what was going on with the regime in Iran during the book. I could never tell what the separate groups were fighting for, who was in power, or who, if anyone, the author supported. The disjointed structure of the narration, skipping backwards and forwards in time at random intervals, also caused me to lose track of what events were influencing other events and how the people she discussed fit into the grand scheme of things. I feel like some sort of timeline or at least direction to a website for further information would have really helped clear things up in that regard, if an un-chronological narrative structure was necessary to the story.

Also unhelpful to the clarity of the memoir was Nafisi’s inconsistent dialogue notations. At some points she used quotation marks, and at other points she dropped them all together. Whole conversations were contained in single paragraphs, making it difficult to tell who was saying what. This uncertainty left me in doubt about the characters’ personalities and voices.

It was interesting to see how the moral debates in the novels the students read in Nafisi’s classes fueled the debates about what was going on in their own government at the time. Though the best novels always allow the reader to make personal connections, sometimes it is difficult to see how the people in places as vastly different as Henry James’ America and late twentieth century Iran can have so much in common. However, as one of Nafisi’s students comments in her journal, “‘[I]t was good to know that even in a decadent society like America there were still some norms, some standards according to which people were judged’” (199). Though those standards were certainly not the same in Iran as they were in America, the fact that there are rules and conventions in any place at any time indicates that there will be people there to rebel against such rules. Nafisi and her favorite students are the real life reflections of those who defied society in the novels they so cherished.

I found the information and analyses of the books they read in class to be enlightening, provided I had read the book they were discussing. However, in the case of probably half the books they discussed I was lost without a plot synopsis and missed many of the points they were making about the connections to their own culture. I suppose this is less of a negative about the book and more of a reflection on my reading habits and a sign that I should improve them....less

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Casey rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

02/18/08

bookshelves: biographynmemoir, womensstudies

recommended to Casey by: Grandma

Passages that provoked various reactions...

p. 30 - "She was talking about the teacher who taught Islamic morality and translation. A Pillsbury Dough Boy personality, she said. Three months after his wife's death, he had married her younger sister, because a man - and here Yassi lowerwed her voice - a man has special needs.

Then her voice took on a serious tone as she began to describe his recent lecture on the difference between Islam and Christianity. She now became the dough-face...more Passages that provoked various reactions...

p. 30 - "She was talking about the teacher who taught Islamic morality and translation. A Pillsbury Dough Boy personality, she said. Three months after his wife's death, he had married her younger sister, because a man - and here Yassi lowerwed her voice - a man has special needs.

Then her voice took on a serious tone as she began to describe his recent lecture on the difference between Islam and Christianity. She now became the dough-faced little man standing by the blackboard, pink chalk in one hand, white chalk in the other. On one side he had written, in large white letters, MUSLIM GIRL, and drawn a vertical line in the middle of the board. On the other side, in large pink letters, he wrote CHRISTIAN GIRL. He had then asked the class if they knew the differences between the two. One was a virgin, he said at last, after an uncomfortable silence, white and pure, keeping herself for her husband and her husband only. her power came from her modesty. The other, well, there was not much one could say about her except that she was not a virgin. To Yassi's surprise, the two girls behind her, both active members of the Muslim Students' Association, had started to giggle, whispering, No wonder more and more Muslims are converting to Christianity."

p. 111 - (discussing The Great Gatsby) ... 'In retrospect it appears strange to me only now, as I write about it, that as I was standing there in that classroom talking about the American dream, we could hear from outside, beneath the window, the loudspeakers broadcasting songs whose refrain was, "Marg bar Amrika!" - "Death to America!"

A novel is not an allegory, I said as the period was about to come to an end. It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing. I just want you to remember this. That is all; class dismissed.'

p. 234 - 'The place where the regime tried to keep its hold, ironically, was in the realm of our imagination. Television was saturated with documentaries on the two world wars. As the now almost empty streets of Tehran became livelier and more colorful, on television we saw Londoners searching for food in garbage cans or huddled together in underground shelters. We were told about how the people of Stalingrad and Leningrad had survived the harsh siege of their cities on a diet of their comrades' flesh. This was not only to justify an increasingly unpopular and desperate war, whose end the regime had refused to contemplate until it had "liberated" the whole of Iraq. It was also aimed at intimidating and controlling a restive population, by holding up the prospect of even greater misfortune, and by reminding us that all had once not been so well on the Western front.' (Emphasis mine. Sounds familiar...)

p. 330 - 'First, none of us can avoid being contaminated by the world's evils; it's all a matter of what attitude you take towards them. And second, you always talk about the effect of "these people" on you. Have you ever thought about your effect on them?'...less

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Stephany rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

07/03/07

Read in June, 2006

recommends it for: those interested in literature and history-their interplay

Reading Lolita in Tehran is written as a memoir -- or at least a partially fictionalized memoir. The degree to which it is fictionalized lies somewhere between"the names have been changed to predict the innocent" to perhaps even more deeper deviations. The reader may never know. Be that as it may, I read it understanding that most of what happened probably happened very much as it is described as to have happened. It feels real. In this book, the author/narrator tells of her Iranian ro...more Reading Lolita in Tehran is written as a memoir -- or at least a partially fictionalized memoir. The degree to which it is fictionalized lies somewhere between"the names have been changed to predict the innocent" to perhaps even more deeper deviations. The reader may never know. Be that as it may, I read it understanding that most of what happened probably happened very much as it is described as to have happened. It feels real. In this book, the author/narrator tells of her Iranian roots, her education in the United States, and her career as a professor of literature upon her return to Iran. The story takes place during the Iranian Revolution as the Shah is dethroned and Khomeini comes to power. The narrator tells of how her rights as a woman and teacher were curtailed and how she came to teach a select group of girls clandestinely in her own home.
Like many authors, she floats back and forth in time to construct her narrative. Although the plot becomes a bit disjointed at times and slightly difficult to follow for those who were not in the midst of the turmoil, it still works. It's like when a friend tells the funny story about how she bought some perfume at Macy's and in doing so she describes the passerbys, the jewelry counter, as well as the outrageous thing the cashier said. All of it is fairly interesting, but sometimes you space out while she is talking; you might lose track of who's who and the general thread of the storyline. Nevertheless, the book is historically informative and filled with sweet gems of brilliance.
My favorite part of the book was the author/narrator's analysis of the literature she was teaching in her classes. She focuses primarily on Nabokov, Fitzgerald, James, and Austen. The books discussed in most depth include Lolita, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Miller, Washington Square, and Pride and Prejudice. This book makes you want to read great literature, and it makes you want to talk about great literature. literature.

While I liked the literary analysis, the book often came off as a series of literary analysis lectures dotted with plot elements. I enjoyed the analysis, but it also grew tiring. I did not find this was the sort of book I could float away with and get lost its rich language and beautiful story. It was, in short, didactic, pedantic, etc. etc. etc. This also helped to create the emotional distance -- which may be good or bad depending on your perspective. Otherwise, the style was fairly accessible. Any issues with accessibility were not because of cultural differences.

My one other small critique of the book is that the author seems to really like herself a little much. Not that I have anything against self-esteem. I've had many professors who speak much as she does. Her self-deprecating comments seem contrived compared to her inescapable academician's ego. At points she says things like, "And of all the people he could have talked to, he chose me." I get easily put off by things like that, though. Probably just a pet peeve of mine.
Bottom line, this is a good book -- in some ways a very good book. It has it's warts but all in all, I would still audit the class.
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Linda rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

01/06/08

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: women round the world, & anyone interested in a personal view of Iranian history since revolution

This book turned out to be a bit of a surprise for me, as my expectation was that it would essentially be all about a women's book group in Tehran. As it turned out the story of the "book group" (actually a private class for a select group of devoted literature students) is only a portion of the story. The book starts with the class, sharing details of the lives of the women who attended, but the parts that deal with the class are more interested in seeing the books read through the p...more This book turned out to be a bit of a surprise for me, as my expectation was that it would essentially be all about a women's book group in Tehran. As it turned out the story of the "book group" (actually a private class for a select group of devoted literature students) is only a portion of the story. The book starts with the class, sharing details of the lives of the women who attended, but the parts that deal with the class are more interested in seeing the books read through the prism of life in Iran, and in seeing life in Iran through the prism of the themes and issues expressed in the novels read by the class.

I say that at the risk of oversimplifying what the book is about. The four key novels mentioned in the book turn out rather to be frames in which the author's memoir is seated. In the process, she discusses her experiences as a university student in the US, her career as a professor in Iran, the students she comes across in her career, the various student movements in the rise, heat, and decline of the revolution, the war with Iraq, and the post-war stagnation. Also, throughout, a constant theme, sometimes explicitly discussed and sometimes not, is the impact on women of the events around them, especially those shaped by the Iranian interpretation of Islam.

It is a fascinating read, and more personal than I had expected, focusing a lot on the author's own plight as an "intellectual" in Iran, as a woman, as a "rebel" of sorts in a regimented society, and as an individual weighing impossible choices between individual and family, between family and country, between risky adherence to principles and uncomfortable compromises in the name of safety, and between double-edged truths and evils.

An excellent book overall. However, I held back a star because it was, at times, extremely dense. It's as if Nafisi was trying to write too many books at once -- it suffers seriously from having too many areas of focus. It was often hard to keep track of who was who as the narrative segued between time periods, and sometimes to keep track of the time periods themselves. Someday when I go back to read it again, I will keep notecards of the different characters, so that I'm not lost when I come back to them after many pages away. And it probably would have helped me to have a better general sense of Iranian history from the revolution on. I did all right as it was, but I had really no good grasp of that history before reading the book, and while the book itself illuminated it to a degree, I feel I would have gotten more out if it if I had read even so much as a Wikipedia entry to get/keep myself oriented.

QUOTES:

How many events go into that unexpected and decisive moment when you wake up one morning and discover that your life has forever been changed by forces beyond your control?

- page 157, Part III, Chapter 1

In retrospect, when historical events are gathered up, analyzed and categorized into articles and books, their messiness disappears and they gain a certain logic and clarity that one never feels at the time.

- page 157, Part III, Chapter 1...less

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Lorenzo rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

08/25/07

I've never read Nabokov's Lolita. Frankly, that book has never been on my list. Hence, you can understand how I've not been attracted by the artful title of this novel. What has aroused my curiosity here has been the Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly Persia.

Indeed Iran has always interested me a lot. Amir, my best friend during secondary school had Iranian roots and he is one of the most clever persons I've ever met in my life. I always say that when me and Amir were 12 years old we used t...more I've never read Nabokov's Lolita. Frankly, that book has never been on my list. Hence, you can understand how I've not been attracted by the artful title of this novel. What has aroused my curiosity here has been the Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly Persia.

Indeed Iran has always interested me a lot. Amir, my best friend during secondary school had Iranian roots and he is one of the most clever persons I've ever met in my life. I always say that when me and Amir were 12 years old we used to talk about arguments I've never found anyone to speak with since I've turned 20. Modern architecture, classical composers, political stuff, computer science and so on. (but we didn't forget girls, of course!).
What a pity we've lost each other in the last years.

Anyway.
Amir used to talk me about Iran too and the same has done a few years ago Ziba a girl with the same Iranian roots I've met while renting her an apartment when I was a yuppie.
Ziba and Amir had described me life in Tehran many times, with their different views, telling me about their relatives there, the rise of ayatollah Khomeini and the fall of Reza Pahlavi. Sometimes they've been critical toward Iran sometimes not.

Azar Nafisi's book makes an interesting portrait of the most turbulent period for Iran's history, in the 70s and in the 80s albeit probably this work is done by a privileged position. In fact the author comes from a rich Iranian family, she has studied and then taught in the US and sometimes she has been accused to have abandoned her country when situation was getting dangerous.

The book itself has two levels of interpretation.
On one hand it aims to explain to young Iranians western literature, choosing perhaps not its greatest books (e.g. The Great Gatsby, Wuthering Heights, Lolita). Nafisi tells about the private lessons she did at her home talking about these books with her students sipping a cup of tea in the meanwhile like they were chatting in a literature club.
On the other hand, professor Nafisi's lessons show the rising difficulties of having a free life in Teheran during Khomeini's revolution when the girls have to hide their bodies from their head to their toes, but they didn't renounce to make up themselves. Someone might say this behaviour was only vanity, but I think it was a way to declare their independence as women, as well and above all.

In this book there are many key moments about recent Iranian's history like the troubles at Tehran University, the destructions of "dangerous" books, or ayatollah Khomeini mass funerals which Nafisi describes better than a documentary. Sometimes "Reading Lolita in Tehran" looks like a counterposition between a laic view and religion, between a wide culture and a narrow fanaticism.

Although this book is not a masterpiece it has been one of the most interesting and open-mindly reads I've done in the last years.

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Naomi rated it:

06/16/07

bookshelves: воображение, история, мозговая-власть

Read in June, 2007

I read this book while I was down with the flu, which added a dimention to my reading as I was isolated in my room for a couple of days. I read some of the reviews for this book on Good Reads and I must say my experience of this book is quite different from what some other people have reported. Azar's opening two chapters were enough to suck me into her world and engross me. Her reading of Lolita was wonderful and I like the way she able to bring her reading of this book, her reflections on Humb...more I read this book while I was down with the flu, which added a dimention to my reading as I was isolated in my room for a couple of days. I read some of the reviews for this book on Good Reads and I must say my experience of this book is quite different from what some other people have reported. Azar's opening two chapters were enough to suck me into her world and engross me. Her reading of Lolita was wonderful and I like the way she able to bring her reading of this book, her reflections on Humbolt into the context of her own experiences in Tehran. One of the criticisms of this book that I read on Good Reads is that her reading material is too western centric - i.e. that she gives too much praise to the literature of America and therefore might give the American reader the impression that their lit is 'better' than Islamic or Iranian literature. I didn't read her book choices in this way. In a way, because America became such a central focus of hatred for the regime in Iran during the revolution she picked this material to demonstrate how biased and myopic this focus was, and how it failed to see the complexity of American life - i.e. that books like Lolita or the Great Gatsby were not recieved with one interpretation in America and that many of the criticisms leveled at those books in the Iranian context were also been discussed in America - i.e. that they were immoral or had flawed heros.

She talks quite considerably about the difficulty of becoming as she calls it 'irrelevant' in her own country. She describes the constant scrutiny that women get on the streets if they are seen to be too alluring or if they wear 'pink socks' or let their nails grow or have a strand of hair fall out from under her head covering. I was thinking of this in the light of my own 'Australian' context. Obviously my life is not as restricted in terms of what I wear or how I choose to adorn or comport myself in public. In fact, these choices are fairly banal and mundane. Yet, for Azar this restriction caused her to examine aspects of herself and her society to work out what really mattered. Because the system made socks important, choosing to wear pink or striped socks became a subversive act. Beyond the immediate existential questions of how an individual is able to deal with having their public and private lives so micro managed, I also enjoyed her questioning of the effects of these policies on society as a whole and especially her understanding of the role of literature in allowing a person to understand complexity in life as a whole.

I must say, when I read her passage about the 'trial' of the novel 'the great Gatsby' in her class, I experienced a different book than I had read. She managed to inject me with a wonderful sense of excitement and a desire to reread Gatsby with new eyes....less

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Khalid rated it:

06/22/07

bookshelves: already-read

Read in January, 2005

Reading Lolita in Tehran is an autobiography of the life of its author, [Azar Nafisi]; by describing her life, the author gave a very interesting depiction of the life in Iran after the revolution. As an expert and a teacher in literature, she colored the autobiography with a touch of literature; novels, as one probably would guess, had a major role in this book. Some of them gave her an explanation of certain situations, others suggested solutions, and she was always on the watch for the...more Reading Lolita in Tehran is an autobiography of the life of its author, [Azar Nafisi]; by describing her life, the author gave a very interesting depiction of the life in Iran after the revolution. As an expert and a teacher in literature, she colored the autobiography with a touch of literature; novels, as one probably would guess, had a major role in this book. Some of them gave her an explanation of certain situations, others suggested solutions, and she was always on the watch for these hints.

This is one of the most wonderful books I have read; it very clearly displays the effect of radicalism on people of political and religious backgrounds; it shows the pain of war, the constant fear, and gives very good insight on the Iran-Iraq war.

I do not claim to agree with all of her opinions, I don't; I sometimes felt that she herself is doing exactly as the regime did to her, displaying an extreme and inaccurate perspective, or taking an action that would only hurt her in the end.

Additionally, while I have enjoyed reading her stories, some of them work just too well for her to be real; everybody just happens to have the right quotes to say at the right time, oh, except for those who aren't on her side. Oh well, but then again I may be wrong.

There is one thing I felt bad about while reading the book; some of the novels discussed in details there are Lolita and Pride and Prejudice, which I have read, but others, like The Great Gastby, Daisy Miller and Invitation to a Beheading I haven't read, and through what I read about them in the book, they seem to be indeed worth reading; unfortunately though, reading about them in the book spoiled them for me, since the ends of these novels were actually mentioned in the book.

Islam was criticized a lot in this book, but most of the things they criticized are things I personally oppose. Ayatollah Khomeni (And the Iranian regime in general) is a Shi'ite Muslim, and I am a Sunni Muslim; there are many differences between the two. I am no expert in the Shi'ite belief, and wouldn't want to say invalid information about it (I am not sure if what Khomeni says is followed by all Shi'ites—and I believe a lot of the things I'll mention here are not followed by most Shi'ites), but I know that things related to having sex with minors, sex with animals, and temporary marriage are prohibited greatly in Sunni Islam. Those are things that I can recall now, among the things that struck me as shocking, but there could be more.

But overall, I am very satisfied; an extremely original narrative, and a very enjoyable biography; she knows how to make the reader smile while reading her discussions with her students, and cry at some of the painful incidents. I needed to read a book like this one....less

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Ali rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

10/14/07

bookshelves: literary-analysis, world-modern-literature

Not a fiction in a classic way, nor a comprative literature text, but a combination of sorts, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a try to look at women’s situation in now Iran (mostly middle class in big cities) compratively with Nabokov’s Lolita, James’s Daisy Miller and …
The fact, what Nafisi narrates by Nitche: “Whoever fights monsters shold see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you”! is terribly true...more Not a fiction in a classic way, nor a comprative literature text, but a combination of sorts, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a try to look at women’s situation in now Iran (mostly middle class in big cities) compratively with Nabokov’s Lolita, James’s Daisy Miller and …
The fact, what Nafisi narrates by Nitche: “Whoever fights monsters shold see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you”! is terribly true.
Reading Lolita … is almost in the same style I love by Kundera; following a handfull of characters for a while, laughing and crying together, sharing sorrows and joys with each other, and then, in some stage, separate from each other, keep going on with your life, but the big effect is there, in you, with you.
Wether you like it or not, it’s a naked reality what Nafisi says about circumstances: Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with a man you loathe... You make your mind blank – pretend to be somewhere else, you pretend to forget your body, you hate your body …
The first chapter is beautifuly described as one can clearly follow Hampert in situation now Iran, and Lolitas! I liked Fitsgerald’s trail in the second chapter as well. Now after reading lolita in Tehran, I got to read Austen once more.
در شخصیت های زن رمان "خوانش لولیتا در تهران" و آنچه حول و حوش زندگی شان می گذرد، هیچ قصه ی تازه ای نیست. اما خواندن دوباره ی آنها از نگاه آذر نفیسی، کوهی از وحشت و اندوه، آوار شانه ها می کند. روایت آرام و دید زنانه ی خانم نفیسی، درد زیستن در جامعه ی امروز ایران را صد چندان دردناک تر می کند. آنسان که واقعیتی را که به عادت کنار زده ای، به عریانی جهنم پیش رویت زنده نگهمیدارد. جایی که هر لحظه عصمت تو پاره می شود، وقتی زن باشی، دردت چندین برابر است. دوست بداری یا نه، نمی توانی با خانم نفیسی موافق نباشی که زندگی در ایران امروز، مثل عشق بازی با مردی ست که از او نفرت داری... آنجایی و پیوسته سعی می کنی به جای دیگر بیاندیشی.... نه گمانم که واقعیت آن جامعه را بشود از این ترسناک تر توصیف کرد.
کاش همه زنان ایرانی، به ویژه نسل تازه، به این کتاب دسترسی داشتند.
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Moushumi rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

11/16/07

Literature from West Asia is usually not my type of reading. But this one is an exception. I picked it up because the incidents looked like it happened straight out of a novel! (So much for non-fiction, did you say?) It offers a fascinating portrait of Iran during the 70s and 80s when the Islamic fundamentalists came into power. Nafisi portrays the political confusion that ensures when anybody who does not align themselves with any particular school of thought other than freedom of expression ma...more Literature from West Asia is usually not my type of reading. But this one is an exception. I picked it up because the incidents looked like it happened straight out of a novel! (So much for non-fiction, did you say?) It offers a fascinating portrait of Iran during the 70s and 80s when the Islamic fundamentalists came into power. Nafisi portrays the political confusion that ensures when anybody who does not align themselves with any particular school of thought other than freedom of expression makes her own decisions.

Azar Nafisi was a literature professor at the University of Tehran and one of the people who supported the new revolutionaries hoping that a better regime would come to power. Unfortunately, the revolutionaries turned out to be worse than the Shah. They imposed various restrictions in the name of of the Holy Koran. The rules became sillier and sillier by the day till women were left with no choice but to wear the burkha (parda), wear no makeup, never walk alone, stop working and amongst other strange rules give up wearing pink socks. In this reapidly shrinking outside world, Nafisi invites seven of her most promising students to Thursday morning at her house to discuss works of literature. So, they read Nabokov’s Lolita, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Henry James's Washington Square and Diasy Miller in the light of their own personal lives.

While everyday classes at the University get interrupted with alarming regularity, the Thursday discussion group goes on for many years till Nafisi decides to migrate to thew U.S because the conditions were becoming more and more unfriendly for intellectuals and teachers. Currently, Dr. Nafisi is a professor at The School for Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University.

Along with the Thursday morning literary group Nafisi gives a very beautiful picture of Iran pre and post revolution. One character that stands out in my hand is "the magician," that nebullious, chocolate-lover of a man who always made sense. His name is never revealed; he is known only as "the magician." We could all do with a friend like "the magician" in our lives; someone we can turn to when we can turn to when we have to make tough decision.

This is really a hard-hitting read. It is part literary criticism, part memoir, part history book, part biography and completely worth reading it. A psychological, political, professional de-masking of the minds, bodies, and spirits of women in Iran at that time and how they deal with the ever-changing reality outside their home.
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Janet rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

01/06/08

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: literary critics, teachers, lovers of classic literature

This book is a great example of the power of a compelling story. Azar Nafisi is a literary critic rather than a trained fiction writer. Her inexperience shows in many rookie mistakes, the kinds of awkward mis-steps that are beaten out of novelists in writing workshops -- occasional self-conscious narrative intrusions (a la George Eliot), jarring word choices in descriptive passages, and unconvincingly heavy "in scene" detail from older memories (stuff that feels imported in order to ...more This book is a great example of the power of a compelling story. Azar Nafisi is a literary critic rather than a trained fiction writer. Her inexperience shows in many rookie mistakes, the kinds of awkward mis-steps that are beaten out of novelists in writing workshops -- occasional self-conscious narrative intrusions (a la George Eliot), jarring word choices in descriptive passages, and unconvincingly heavy "in scene" detail from older memories (stuff that feels imported in order to make the memories feel more immediate). I'm still baffled by Random House's failure to edit this work with a firmer hand. But the writing is fluent and moving in the passages where Nafisi does what she's best at -- sharing her insights into writers like James, Fitzgerald and Austen.

Nafisi is aware of her strengths. She writes, "I am too much of an academic: I have written too many papers and articles to be able to turn my experiences and ideas into narrative without pontificating. Although that is in fact my urge -- to narrate, to reinvent myself..." (p. 266)

The flaws in craft, which would be fatal to many stories, become minor blemishes here, because Nafisi's story is such a powerful one. The painful and often shocking details of daily life in the Islamic Republic of Iran are absolutely fascinating. The students draw amazing connections between the themes in classic Western novels and their lives under a brutal theocracy.

The story is somewhat hampered by the author's obligation to obscure the identities of her female students. In many ways this is a hybrid book -- it's a fictionalized memoir with a heavy dose of literary criticism. I enjoyed the portraits of the seven compelling students, but what I valued most was the passion these women shared for literature.

"Austen's theme is cruelty not under extraordinary circumstances, but ordinary ones, committed by people like us. Surely that's more frightening? And that's why I like Bellow....Bellow's novels are about private cruelties, about the ordeal of freedom, the burden of choice -- so are James', for that matter. It's frightening to be free, to take responsibility for your decisions. Yes, he said, to have no Islamic Republic of Iran to blame. " (p. 312)

This book is a welcome reminder that good teachers touch lives and even "conservative" works of great fiction can transform readers.
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Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

09/13/07

bookshelves: topnotch

Read in August, 2007

I had Reading Lolita in Tehran in my hand as I was stepping onto the El a few weeks ago and with met with a beautiful sight; a young veiled woman with her head tipped over onto the window and the cell phone in her ear. I remember her clearly: grey/silver scarf veiling her hair and mouth, small white purse at her shoulder, dark blue jeans and striking eyes. I don't know that I would have been struck as much by the sight as I was if I hadn't been reading this book at the same time. Of course it is...more I had Reading Lolita in Tehran in my hand as I was stepping onto the El a few weeks ago and with met with a beautiful sight; a young veiled woman with her head tipped over onto the window and the cell phone in her ear. I remember her clearly: grey/silver scarf veiling her hair and mouth, small white purse at her shoulder, dark blue jeans and striking eyes. I don't know that I would have been struck as much by the sight as I was if I hadn't been reading this book at the same time. Of course it isn't unnatural to see Muslim women in full garb anywhere in the city, but I was just a little shocked to have a physical person interact with with image in my mind being cultivated by the dimensions of the book. I wondered what she was communicating with her eyes.

The book is divided into three major sections; within those sections are these eloquent snapshots of Nafisi's life and political/social climate present in Tehran. She goes in a chronological order overall, but does quite a bit of popping back and forth to explain background, personalities, political changes, etc. She talks first about the girls in the seminar she taught in her home before getting back to her progression as a student and un-veiled female in the revolutionary university setting. Definitely a "take a bite and chew" type of joint. If you rush through it you may miss an understanding of the transitions in her life - and other intellectual Iranian females' lives for that matter - and what it meant to suffer under increasing degrees of oppression. At a certain part of the book she frequently uses the word "irrelevant" to describe how the suppression of freedoms have rendered her.

It would be overarching to say that she describes all of these events through the lens of classic literature review, but I can say that you can she the language she uses in describing the discussions of the books in her discussions of other events.

I will freely admit that I was absolutely enchanted by her students' interactions amongst themselves and was a little bit put off by her abrupt change to her own life as a university student. She does transition back to the small living-room seminar, where her students frequently complain about how much more difficult it is for intellectual women as themselves to find freedom.

Just read it. You can't help but care about them after you read about them....less

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Claudia rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

04/18/08

Read in April, 2008

To me, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, is a story about the search and struggle for identity. How much of who we are is dictated by our surroundings and how much comes from within? A former English lit. professor in Iran, Azar Nafisi, invites various "girls" to a weekly, private class in her home to discuss literature. Their conversations change over time to discussions of a more intimate and personal nature as these children of the revolution struggle to understand who...more To me, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, is a story about the search and struggle for identity. How much of who we are is dictated by our surroundings and how much comes from within? A former English lit. professor in Iran, Azar Nafisi, invites various "girls" to a weekly, private class in her home to discuss literature. Their conversations change over time to discussions of a more intimate and personal nature as these children of the revolution struggle to understand who they are and what they want in life. In a country where women, at that time, were incredibly oppressed, most of the girls' lives have been controlled by others. What they wear, how they act, whom they associate with. The books become their freedom. Their escape. The other world where they are free because their imaginations are free.

Prior to reading this book, my knowledge of Iranian history was poor. Even worse, my concept of how the political forces impacted individual lives was pretty much nonexistent. I gained valuable insight into the struggle to cope in an oppressive, and sometimes violent, situation.

Nafisi weaves mini lectures about literature through the stories about the girls and her life during the revolution. I found these frustrating, probably mostly due to the fact that my memory of the novels she comments on has faded. These segments came across very college lecture-y, which I wasn't prepared for, and I felt like a student who didn't finish her homework before coming to class. (And am a little embarrassed that I don't have a better recollection of the works that I read in High School. Sorry, Miss Bagley...) Perhaps I will pick up some of the classics again and refresh myself with the stories so as to better appreciate the value of these lectures.

I'm not one for epilogues, and rarely read them. But, I finished this book during a sleepless night and needed more pages to help lull me back to sleep. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that one of the girls started at my alma mater, Rice University, to work on a PhD the year after I graduated. That makes the book even more special. And, somehow, it makes me feel good....less

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Siria rated it:

06/04/07

bookshelves: autobiography, nonfiction

Read in January, 2007

This book failed for me on a number of levels. The premise of it sounded interesting to me--a glimpse at the lives of women and academics under the totalitarian regime in Iran, arranged around a series of bookclub meetings and analyses of various famous books. But for such a promising concept, and for a book which deals with so many serious and complex topics, it's facile and cliched. Almost alarmingly so, in fact.

The tone was the biggest failing for me. It's smug and self-important. For me,...more

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oriana rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

10/27/07

bookshelves: phenomenal, read-2007

In case you don't know about this book yet (though, honestly, how could you not know about this book yet?), it is an absolutely amazing memoir by an Iranian woman who was a professor of English & Persian Literature at teh University of Tehran before, during, and after the revolution and war with Iraq. Once wearing the veil became mandatory and she refused to wear one, she was forced to quit teaching, and one way she came up with to fill her time was to gather several of her most dedicated st...more In case you don't know about this book yet (though, honestly, how could you not know about this book yet?), it is an absolutely amazing memoir by an Iranian woman who was a professor of English & Persian Literature at teh University of Tehran before, during, and after the revolution and war with Iraq. Once wearing the veil became mandatory and she refused to wear one, she was forced to quit teaching, and one way she came up with to fill her time was to gather several of her most dedicated students for a once-weekly literature class. In it, they discussed books like The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, Lolita (duh), etc, etc.

This book is triple-layered. The first layer is Azar Nafisi's memoir of the tumultuous times she lived in in Tehran, which she watched go from one of the most progressive, intellectual cities in the world to one of the most restrictive and repressive. You can see many of her friends and relatives, and the different ways people dealt with everything -- from withdrawing completely from society to picking sides and becoming more vocal and fervant about religion, politics, nationalism, etc.

The second layer is Nafisi's memoirs of being a professor of literature in such times, including one astonishing episode where her class actually puts The Great Gatsby on trial to determine whether it is decadent, Western poison... or a work of high art. Not to mention the memories of the women in her literature class, how they coped with the readings, one another, and ther lives in Iran.

The third layer, which for me catapults this book into a work of absolute genius, is Nafisi's theories on and explications of the books themselves, including how they relate to the struggles and culture of both of the above layers.

Nafisi has brilliant theories about literature, and such a clear, inviting writing voice, in addition to giving us a much-needed internal perspective a country and culture that we (Americans) are essentially taught to loathe, makes this one of the most incredible books I've ever read. Three times....less

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Farah rated it:

(review of isbn 081297106X)

06/20/07

I was really torn while reading this book. While I appreciated the glimpse into the life of people in Iran, I found it disheartening that the author didn't always t