Customer Reviews

Cry Of The Peacock

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 1991 novel by Gina B. Nahai is the story of the Jews in Iran, and one character in particular named Peacock. Ms. Nahai did a lot of research and it rings with both historical accuracy and as well as a bit of magic realism. The story begins more than two hundred years ago when Iran was called Persia. There are harems and ghettos and child marriage. There is vast wealth and grinding poverty. People are locked into rigid social patterns that they cannot escape. Jews are treated as outcasts but yet sometimes intermarry. Cruelty is everywhere.

Ms. Nahai creates her characters well; each is an individual and yet is representative of a culture and a way of life that has existed for centuries and has remained largely unexplored in western literature. We meet Esther the soothsayer and her descendents, visit marriage beds and feel the experience of a culture where a man is allowed four legal wives and hundreds of temporary wives. We see love and passion and feel great sadness.

I found it difficult to read this book at times because of the constant cruelties. There was something to make me wince on almost every page. Even the wealthy were not spared. It made me wonder if perhaps the author went too far in her fervor to shock the reader. And yet, I couldn't put it down. After a while I got hardened and focused on the rich and interesting characters. And slowly but surely I began to understand the forces shaping the Iran that has emerged today.

Yes. I do recommend this book. But it certainly isn't for the squeamish.

As a 1st generation American, I have never been to Iran. When I picked up "Cry of the Peacock," all of a sudden, a whole world opened to me!

Nahai's vivid imagery and use of magical realism entrance readers into the the scent, sound, sight, and feel of life in Iran through the many kings, the Constitutional Revolution, the reign of the Pahlavis and the present government.

I learned so much of my country's history and culture. I now know why we are "a culture of sorrow" and why we have so much to offer the world.

A must-read to anyone from Iran or anyone who wants to understand the beauty of the Middle East.

Nahai's writing echoes Isabel Allende, Toni Morrison, and Amy Tan. It was a pleasure to read this book.

This book is a worthwhile predecessor to Ms. Nahai's current best-seller "Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith." Readers who've enjoyed the current novel will delight in catching up on the family history of the fascinating characters they met in "Moonlight." There is much to be learned from this earlier chapter about Jewish life in Iran.

Beautifuly written beautiful story about beautiful ancient Persia and more...
With lots of facts from history and culture of Persia (now called Iran) I found this book educational and yet magical with the fascinating story plot and the way it was written.
This was one of this kind of books which one doesn't want to put down and after turning to the last page one wishes it wasn't over...

Have you ever heard a peacock's cry? This piercing, incredibly sad shriek, at the same time melancholic, helpless and painful? Gina Barkhordar Nahai managed to capture it in her novel, which evokes similar feelings

"The Cry of The Peacock" is a special story. Special in many ways - from the atmosphere, full of magic and the supernatural, through the layout, describing the fate and details of the family life, intertwining with the history of Persia (later Iran), to the choice of the Jewish minority in a Muslim country as the side from which the story is told.

The book opens with the family tree, spanning six generations from 1796 to 1982, beginning with Esther the Soothsayer and Thick Pissing Isaac, in the Jewish ghetto in Esfahan, where Esther appears from nowhere and goes away like a ghost, only to haunt the generations to come.

The beginning of the story is at its end, when Peacock, the old woman of 116, is imprisoned. She recalls her life and the legends of her family, starting with Esther. And from the beginning we know that all the characters will be powerful, magical and captivating. We follow the descendants of Esther through the ages. They are ordinary people, Jews without right in a Muslim country, who are regarded as dirty and unworthy, whose touch would harm the believers, relegated to rat-infested ghettos and life in poverty. Because of their position in society, however, they become an important card in the political games in Persian internal and international policy.

The plot spans nearly two hundred years, but the prophecies, dreams and memories go much farther in the past, so that the reader gets a glimpse of ancient Persian myths and history from the first rulers, Cyrus and Darius, and Ismail Shah, who made Shiite Islam the national religion, and from whose times date the pogroms and repressions towards Jews in Persia. The members of Esther the Soothsayer's family tree are ordinary people, but somehow they are as important for the country, as the royal family and have an impact on the directions in Persian politics and history. On the other hand, the rulers have the strengths and weaknesses of ordinary people...

The story culminates in the twentieth century, when the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi decided to modernize Persia, renamed it Iran and rapidly tried to introduce the reforms, such as banning the veil, make-up and cinema, and, importantly for the plot, stopped the discrimination of Jews, declared them equal to Muslims and opened the ghettos. The society was not ready for such brutally fast change, and so Khomeini could emerge with his counter-revolution and introduce the Shiite rule again...

"The Cry of a Peacock", however, is not a political or historical novel (for those who seek great historical info on Reza Pahlavi and Khomeini, I would recommend "The Shah of Shahs" by Ryszard Kapuscinski). It is an infused with magic story of human feelings, of borders inside us, of intolerance and hatred, but also of love and mercy, that know no race or religion. This story, written in beautiful, simple yet rich prose, is colorful and changing in the light like a peacock's feather!

This is one of the most incredible books I've ever read. In fact, I've read it twice just to savor the language and re-enter the lives of Ester and Solomon the Man and all of the rest. It matters not if you are Iranian or Jewish, this book is a story for everyone. The characters don't just get under your skin, they burrow deep and fester, causing you to scratch and scrape until they burst forth in all of their beautiful splendor. PLEASE READ!

I loved the writer's style. The story was very well-paced, and there was never any part where I was yawning and resisting the urge to flick on the TV. The story of Peacock and her family are well interspersed with stories of separate (though related, plotwise) people, and actual historical facts. The only thing was (and this is also, most likely, a historical fact) that this book heaped so much misery upon its characters that after a while, it just became 'things that happened.' The impact of the book lay in the sheer weight of misfortune, rather than any single heartbreaking mishap. 9.5/10

I couldn't put the book from the time I started reading it. Following the family through several generations was fascinating, especially in the context of the different historical events in Iran. Since I do not know much about Iranian/Persian history, I cannot speak to that portion of the book. I just enjoyed the book for the story it told and the glimpse it gave into the culture for Jews during this time period.

I loved Moonlight On The Avenue of Faith, so was excited to order this book. However, I got totally lost in the details of the story, could not follow who the characters were, and found it to be quite violent. I gave it a good try, but finally gave up.

captivating, hypnotizing and a good insight into the history of the Iran, especially the Iranian jews.