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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
I admit to not knowing much about Iran. I need to read more about it, and this book's personal setting helped to put the larger forces in context. I could read the names of the major players till my eyes cross and not retain anything. Nafisi seems to have a way to tell us what happened without boring us.
I also liked the format of this book. Nafisi has her photos interspersed with the text. I wish more publishers would go that route with biographies and memoirs.
I also liked the format of this book. Nafisi has her photos interspersed with the text. I wish more publishers would go that route with biographies and memoirs.
Never really got into this, but can't quite figure out why. The prologue and the ending were both lovely.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Such a thoughtful, beautiful, and mature memoir. I learned a lot about Iran and the revolution from it, but it was also an exploration of family relationships, identity, home, and literature. Highly recommended read.
I was between 2 and 3 stars, but the last chapter with a political timeline for Iran was informative and useful. There are lovely, reflective bits in the memoir, but it isn't very exotic or provocative as a whole. My favorite parts were the references to books and fiction becoming part of the fabric of one's identity. Perhaps I should have read Reading Lolita in Tehran.
Audiobook read by the author
2**
Azar Nafisi is probably best known for her earlier memoir Reading Lolita In Tehran which chronicles her attempts at teaching Western literature to a select group of female students during the time when Iran was led by the Taliban. In this book she looks are her life, growing up in Tehran.
Both her parents dealt with life by telling stories. Her mother, intelligent but never able to fulfill her own dreams and ambitions, reinvented herself and her family in the stories she told of her own upbringing. Nafisi’s father turned to classic literature, bringing the enchanting tales of the Persian Book of Kings to his children to illustrate and teach them.
But Nafisi learned also to NOT tell, to keep secrets from her mother about her father’s affairs, to tell other stories to cover up the betrayal.
As if her family life weren’t turmoil enough, Nafisi was growing up in Tehran during times of strife, revolution and changes in power.
I had high hopes for this memoir. Nafisi is clearly an intelligent and strong-willed woman. But I really didn’t connect with her story. Her parents come off as seriously flawed, but she seems to easily forgive her father’s transgressions, while blaming her mother for everything. By the end of the memoir she seems to have come to a more mature understanding of her parents’ marriage and of their individual strengths and successes, as well as their failings.
But I was just tired of it. I finished it only because it was for my F2F book group.
Nafisi reads the abridged audio version herself. Not sure why she chose to abridge the work, but clearly she agreed with shortening it, as she narrated herself. Makes me think the original text should also have been shortened. Her delivery is marred by the loud breaths she takes between phrases.
ook group.
2**
Azar Nafisi is probably best known for her earlier memoir Reading Lolita In Tehran which chronicles her attempts at teaching Western literature to a select group of female students during the time when Iran was led by the Taliban. In this book she looks are her life, growing up in Tehran.
Both her parents dealt with life by telling stories. Her mother, intelligent but never able to fulfill her own dreams and ambitions, reinvented herself and her family in the stories she told of her own upbringing. Nafisi’s father turned to classic literature, bringing the enchanting tales of the Persian Book of Kings to his children to illustrate and teach them.
But Nafisi learned also to NOT tell, to keep secrets from her mother about her father’s affairs, to tell other stories to cover up the betrayal.
As if her family life weren’t turmoil enough, Nafisi was growing up in Tehran during times of strife, revolution and changes in power.
I had high hopes for this memoir. Nafisi is clearly an intelligent and strong-willed woman. But I really didn’t connect with her story. Her parents come off as seriously flawed, but she seems to easily forgive her father’s transgressions, while blaming her mother for everything. By the end of the memoir she seems to have come to a more mature understanding of her parents’ marriage and of their individual strengths and successes, as well as their failings.
But I was just tired of it. I finished it only because it was for my F2F book group.
Nafisi reads the abridged audio version herself. Not sure why she chose to abridge the work, but clearly she agreed with shortening it, as she narrated herself. Makes me think the original text should also have been shortened. Her delivery is marred by the loud breaths she takes between phrases.
ook group.
Left off on ch. 7. Not in the right headspace to read this rn.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault
Wonderful! I'm addicted to this author's books.
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I did not finish this book.....perhaps because I had pre-conceived notions about the book and they turned out to be incorret. It's possible that I had another book in mind.....but whatever the reason I found myself not enjoying it....