Laurae1212's review
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Azar Nafisi
"I felt Nafisi was too biased"???
Easy to say from your armchair in America.
no where else to say it from, though. I struggled with this too, and eventually just gave up on the book. I had hope that the writing would have been more balanced somehow. Just wasn't what I had hoped and the women didn't ring true with those remembered from my life in Iran many years ago.
Except that this book isn't a "novel" at all... it's a biographical book, so the "premise" is this womans actual experiences. There was no "plot" so to speak, this was a woman describing her experiences and her thoughts... that the ending was disapointing is besides the point... I'm sure it was disapointing to the author as well, but there is nothing she could have done to change it.
I wasn't quit sure what to expect from this book, but I, for one, ended up enjoying it and feeling profoundly moved by the experiences these women had.
Laurae1212's review
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Laurae1212's review
rating:
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 attache...more
"I felt Nafisi was too biased"???
Easy to say from your armchair in America.
no where else to say it from, though. I struggled with this too, and eventually just gave up on the book. I had hope that the writing would have been more balanced somehow. Just wasn't what I had hoped and the women didn't ring true with those remembered from my life in Iran many years ago.
Except that this book isn't a "novel" at all... it's a biographical book, so the "premise" is this womans actual experiences. There was no "plot" so to speak, this was a woman describing her experiences and her thoughts... that the ending was disapointing is besides the point... I'm sure it was disapointing to the author as well, but there is nothing she could have done to change it.I wasn't quit sure what to expect from this book, but I, for one, ended up enjoying it and feeling profoundly moved by the experiences these women had.
