Jumping Over Fire [Paperback]

Nahid Rachlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

Fleeing a neocolonial oil town in southern Iran as Khomeini rises to power, the Ellahi family emigrates to the US, where Nora and her adopted brother Jahan struggle to end their incestuous attachment, get through college, and forge independent lives. Confronted by anti-Iranian hostility, Jahan is drawn to Islam, ultimately going back to join the Iranian army to fight Saddam Hussein, while Nora takes advantage of the greater opportunities and personal freedom for women here.

Nahid Rachlin is the Iranian-American author of Veils, Foreigner, Married to a Stranger, and The Heart's Desire. She teaches at New School University and the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rachlin illuminates the private and public consequences of the Islamic revolution in her latest novel of 20th-century Iranian life (Heart's Desire). Nora Ellahi, the daughter of an Iranian doctor and his American wife, lives a sheltered life among the economic elite of the oil city Masjid-e-Suleiman in the 1970s. While dissatisfaction with the ruling Shah and resentment of foreign influence spills over into street demonstrations, Nora grows increasingly attracted to her adopted brother, Jahan, a full Iranian, and their sexual affair blossoms during a summer at their country house in Meigoon. Nora and Jahan's illicit relationship plays out against the backdrop of a restrictive society, and the burgeoning revolution lends tension to each daily activity. The novel's less propulsive second half is set in America. When the revolution reaches Masjid-e-Suleiman, the Ellahi family leaves Iran and resettles in Long Island, where Nora revels in the more liberal society but the rest of the family struggles to adapt. Ultimately, Jahan must choose between the freedom of America and the patriotic call of serving his birth country in the Iran-Iraq war. Though Rachlin sometimes sacrifices art for clarity with her straightforward writing, she delivers a complex portrait of a divided Iran. (Mar.)
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From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–When Muslim extremists outlaw the Persian tradition of bonfires in celebration of Norooz (New Year), the children in Nora and Jahan's neighborhood build their own small fires in the street, jumping and playing until police chase them back into their houses. This is just one of many gemlike memories that, strung together like a series of Persian miniatures, relate Nora's story of her life in a world fragmented by irreconcilable forces. As children, the privileged daughter and son of an American mother and an Iranian father create a magical world of their own within a larger doll's house, the housing compound of the Iranian-American Oil Company. As they enter adolescence, they discover that Jahan was adopted, and their love takes an erotic and ambiguously incestuous turn. When political unrest forces the family to escape to America, they must build new lives; there, and finally in Iran, the now-mostly-American Nora and the now-mostly-Persian Jahan ultimately free themselves of their secret pasts and find very different paths to adulthood. Complexities of Iranian culture, recent history, and current events create a vivid background for a moving and suspenseful story. A deeply flawed family, and the people of many nationalities who touch their lives, is seen with a clear but forgiving eye; the heavy toll of intolerance is shown with an unsparing one. A discussion guide is provided, though it seems unlikely most groups would need one to spark a lively interchange of ideas inspired by this wise and timely novel.–Christine C. Menefee, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872864529
• ISBN-13: 978-0872864528
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,303,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

BRIEF BIO http://www.nahidrachlin.com

Nahid Rachlin attended Columbia University MFA program on a Doubleday-Columbia Fellowship and then went on to Stanford University MFA program on a Stegner Fellowship. Her publications include a memoir, PERSIAN GIRLS (Penguin), four novels, JUMPING OVER FIRE (City Lights), FOREIGNER (W.W. Norton), MARRIED TO A STRANGER (E.P.Dutton), THE HEART'S DESIRE (City Lights), and a collection of short stories, VEILS (City Lights). Her individual stories have appeared in about fifty magazines. One of her stories was produced by Symphony Space, "Selected Shorts" and was aired on NPR radio stations around the country.
Her work has received favorable reviews in major magazines and newspapers and translated into Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic, and Farsi. She has written reviews and essays for New York Times, Newsday, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. She received many awards, including the Bennet Cerf Award, PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
She has been interviewed in magazines such as Poets & Writers and AWP Writers Chronicle, and TV such as Channel 13, and on NPR's such as Fresh Air, Terry Gross, All Things Considered.
Read a recent review of PERSIAN GIRLS: http://www.brooklyntoday.info/features/465-persian-girls.html

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Linda Jo Smith Reviews, June 2, 2006

By 

Linda Jo Smith - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jumping Over Fire (Paperback)

Jumping Over Fire, is a timely novel about family values, self respect, love and passion. The story unfolds in Masjid-e-Suleiman, Iran in the early 1970's during the fall of the Shah of Iran. The Ellahi family lived in a spacious two-story house with two parents, two children and a maid on an Iranian American Oil Company compound. Moira, the mother, left her Irish-American Catholic roots in Ohio to work in Iran as a nurse. Cyrus, the Iranian father, was a radiologist. Both were both employed by the Oil Company's hospital located within the compound when they met. They eventually married, adopted a boy of Iranian descent, Jahan, and a year later Moira gave birth to a blond baby girl, Nora.

Nora tells the story in first person. She tells of how she and her brother Jahan were inseparable and loving, and how their parents generally ignored them. Cyrus and Moira loved the children very much, yet they seemed to lavish their affections on each other instead of the children. The children were a couple themselves as they went everywhere and did everything together.

Nora and Jahan were usually left to be on their own aside from the maid, Golpar, who was a traditional Muslim woman. Golpar cooked and served meals to the children, reminded them how they should conduct themselves in public and often provided comfort in the parents' absence. Since they often ventured out into the city for entertainment and shopping they had to be mindful that their Western upbringing would not translate into disrespect for Iranian tradition.

The discovery of Jahan's adoption in their teenage years spurs a romantic, yet defiant relationship in the midst of the Iran hostage crisis and the Ayatollah Khomeini's coming to power. The two no longer consider themselves as siblings giving way to their carnal desires, yet they were fearful of being discovered not only by their parents, but by traditional outsiders who would exert serious consequences to them and their family.

The family's association with the oil industry and their refusal to practice the staunch traditions of Islam made it dangerous for them to remain in Iran. Jahan's embrace of his Iranian heritage and Nora's refusal to be locked in the "traditional ways" brings about conflict between the two of them as the entire family faced the political turbulence that jeopardized their safety. Eventually, Khomeini's take over of the police and government forced the family to immigrate to America. It is in America where the family relationships become redefined.

Although somewhat predictable, I found Jumping Over Fire to be an interesting read especially since we encounter immigrants from the Middle East in our daily lives. It offers an understanding of the conflicting traditional and orthodox morals of Islam and its impact in global society. Jumping Over Fire would be invaluable resource for public library book discussion groups and reading groups of diverse nationalities. The Reading Group Guide promotes interesting dialogue regarding the moral issues and challenges of "blended" American families.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Culture Shock, May 21, 2006

By 

Brian Mori - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jumping Over Fire (Paperback)

I just finished reading Nahid Rachlin's JUMPING OVER FIRE, a beautifully crafted tale, written with subtlety and insight that is rare in modern prose. Her deeply moving story about the Ellahi family, caught up in the throes of the Iranian revolution, touches on a myriad of topics, including forbidden love, and the loss and abandonment of family and country. What is most remarkable about Ms. Rachlin's writing is the empathy she brings to each character -- particularly to Nora, the heroine, who, by birth and by circumstance, straddles two cultures. JUMPING OVER FIRE presents a window into this unique world. I highly recommended this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nora As Alter Ego, May 8, 2006

By 

Barbara E. Jaccarino (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jumping Over Fire (Paperback)

So deftly and thoroughly does Rachlin flesh out the character of her protagonist, one quickly comes to think of Nora as an alter ego. Yet another example of Rachlin's specialty:provocative deceptively simple prose brimming with psychological insight.This reader would love a sequel!