Daneshvar's Playhouse [Hardcover]

Simin Daneshvar (Author), Simin Danishvar (Author), Maryam Mafi (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1989

In this rich collection of short stories, Daneshvar captures the essence of a rich traditional culture undergoing change: A child lost in a bazaar, a young woman who forsakes her husband, children, and home just to own a car, a traditional theater where the play and the players act on many levels, a colonel's allegience passing from the Shah to Khomeini, an old woman's memories, and a moving chronicle of the final days of Jalal Al-e Ahmad, the author's husband. Simin Daneshvar draws from over a thousand years of Persian storytelling tradition and combines this with modern techniques of short fiction and cinema. The result is both entertaining and a key of uncompromising honesty, rich detail, and a dazzling range of voices that guides the reader into the center of a complex society and its concerns.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In five intriguing stories, the formal detachment of Daneshvar's prose reinforces her subtle revelation of repressive features in Iranian society. The author, one of the few well-known women writers in Iran, is a feminist opposed to both political tyranny and religious fanaticism, themes obliquely indicated here. These seemingly simple stories disclose a rich culture in a time of ferment and change, of women in chadors , held in contempt by the men who control their lives. "Vakil Bazaar" seems innocent enough, an everyday tale of an upper-class child let loose in the bazaar while her nanny flirts with a shopkeeper. By the end, with the little girl lost and the nanny passively peering around, the reader is sure that the child will never be found, and nobody will care. In "To Whom Can I Say Hello?," a woman alternates between mourning the loss of her lover and her job and worrying over her daughter, whose brutish husband has denied his mother-in-law access to his house. The moving "Loss of Jalal" is a nonfiction account of the death of the author's husband, a noted writer. This volume is a valuable addition to our knowledge of Persian culture and the political complexities of modern Iran.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Beautiful flowing language gives these stories a dreamlike quality. . . . This is an unusual book that reflects ideas from a rich culture. . . . It is a wonderful book to read." -- WLW Journal

"Not tightly structured, these stories give glimpses of Iranian life and of the author's female perspective, and therein lies their value. Daneshvar's autobiographical reflections on the death of her husband Jalal Al-e Ahmad and on her life as a woman writer are particularly revealing." -- Choice Magazine

"Simin Daneshvar has long been recognized as one of Iran's most talented women writers. . . . Mafi's renditions make the stories accessible even to readers unfamiliar with the social and cultural setting of Daneshvar's texts. . . . With the publication of Daneshvar's Playhouse, her message of hope might find a larger audience." -- World Literature Today

"In five intriguing stories, the formal detachment of Daneshvar's prose reinforces her subtle revelation of repressive features in Iranian society..." -- Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Mage Publishers; 1st edition (September 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934211191
• ISBN-13: 978-0934211192
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,404,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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