Customer Reviews

Garden of the Brave in War: Recollections of Iran

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a treasure, beloved by anyone who has spent time in Iran, and/or who loves the English language used in a way unique to O'Donnell. It has been comared to Out of Africa - the deceptively simple wording, pared to the bone. I have given this book to people in Europe and America and they all, without prodding, contact me to tell me what a wonderful experience it has been for them.
Of course things have changed since he was there! But this gem will bring forth an Iran that many of us were blessed to know (1960's). None of us would pretend to have understood the complexity of that wonderfully rich culture but O'Donnell was comfortable with almost anyone, highranking to druckdrivers. He spoke the language, he knew all the verses to some of the rather louche folksongs, yet he never pretended to be The Expert. One of your reviewers, an Iranian, who gave the book 3 stars, has got it wrong. This is a memoir, evoking a period when Americans roamed freely, coming into contact with a very ancient civilization which many of them couldn't pretend to understand. If the recounting of the experiences of this extraordinary American, who understood more than any of us in Shiraz at the time, appears condescending to anyone, I have to say they are missing the point.
Any brilliant travel writing is bound to upset someone, but this is a piece of writing that leaves such questions moot, they shouldn't even apply. One man's experiences, and this has some riotously funny ones, have made for a fabulous read, period.

This is an excellent book. The stories are charming and the prose a literary gem -- simple, humorous, and yet realistic. I could not stop reading it from cover to cover. The author's second book (Seven Shadows of Memory) is definitely on my list of reading.

Terence O'Donnell does a masterful job of vividly describing the scenery, the people, the lives, the simplicity and the colorful everyday lives of "locals" in the villages and towns he has stayed and visited in Iran. His observations, I found, very insightful and as best as I have experienced them myself, very accurate. I was saddened to know that he has passed away, this would have been a man I would have loved to sit down with and hear his stories, over a hot cup of sweet tea.

Reading this book was like savoring a fine wine. I had to read each page so slowly because I dreaded for this experience to be over. Terence O'Donnell convies such wonderful stories of his day's in Iran ,that I actually felt transported at times to the Iran of Mr. O'Donnells tales. How I envy his experiences of his time there. Truly an enchanting book, written by an eloquent man. Excellent reading !

This book involes a great deal of humor, culture, and one man's experience in the wonderful and somewhat mysterious country of Iran. It is an extremely easy book to read, and is very informative. When finished with the book you think about how good the book was, and later you realize how much you learned about the Iranian culture. I recommend it to anyone interested in culture and/or the Middle East. I also recommend it to anyone who is looking to read a book so different it is refreshing.

O'Donnell's "Garden of the Brave in War" is a lovely lost gem of a travel memoir-- his account of his time on a farm in northern Iran in the 1960s. It's elegant, delightful, sad, and engrossing. It's also about a lost world-- Iran a decade or so before the Revolution, an Iranian countryside still only dimly aware of "modernization", where politics-- if anyone notices at all --are local and tribal, where the author is not an infidel or a "Westerner", but rather seen by the locals as a hapless city dweller who needed to be gently taught about country life. O'Donnell conjures up visions of a lost time and place-- the Iran where he spent fifteen years, an Iran far removed from the ominous place it seems in 2007 --and tells a lovely sad story. This is one of those forgotten books I'm glad to be able to recommend.

It's simple, beautiful and illustrative. You will be transported to a different place at a different time.

The true story of an American man who lived in Iran, sometime back in 60's near a village in central Iran in an old mansion, previously belonging to a eccentric khan. A story full of exotic characters, from a simple, religious gardener to a corrupt old prince. A very interesting read, and sure to become a classic.

This is one of my favorite books about Iran. The book is a collection of the author's journal on his time as a farmer in the Iranian country side. His observations are very detailed without being judgmental. Although he spent the 60ies of the 20ieth century in sural Iran, his observations clarify many of the odd events which happened in Iran during the last 50 years including the islamic revolution, which toppled the last monarchy in Iran. The life of ordinary people has been always intertwined with their understanding of God without being fundamentally religious as Taliban or the wahhabi's of Saudi Arabia are. People pilger to the holy sites in Iran and contrary to pilgrame among christian catholics they look for fun and amusement throughout their pilgrimage. This shows the balance or some might call it contradicition in Iranian society of being pious without neglecting the Dionysian side of life with the pleasures of flesh, that's why up to now no totalitarian ruler has ever managed to control the people in Iran as Saddam or Hitler could in their respective country.

This book is quite an enjoyable and fast read. Mr. O'Donnell, born and raised in Oregon, decided to go live outside of a small Iranian village for 15 years. He never mentions why he made that decision, but it really is irrelevant since during his stay there, he kept a journal and came away with some very entertaining stories.

For someone trying to get a fair-minded and non-political description of rural life in Iran, this would be a great read. The author left Iran to come back to the U.S. before the Islamic Revolution, so he never mentions it or any other other political matter really. A seemingly secular person himself, he nevertheless appears to be able to view and describe all categories of Iranians with objectivity. Overall, a pleasant and informative book for anyone interested in life in Iran.