Customer Reviews

Jumping Over Fire

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

 

 

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.

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.

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!

This novel kept me up until 3:30 AM because I just could not bear to put it down. It is an incredible story of secrets, cultures, love, and the ties that bind. It was a wonderful detailed account of an Iranian-American girl, her brother, and their parents and of their challenges as they lived through the revolution and their flight to America (and the new challenges that were presented there). A fabulous read! I can't wait to start reading Nahid Rachlin's other novels.

Jumping Over Fire is the story of a forbidden love affair with a sweeping backdrop of history. With this difference: the history is recent and immediate, with implications for events now unfolding in the middle east. And with this difference: unlike many historical novels, Rachlin's characters are vivid, their plight deeply moving. Her writing is very assured, with a thorough understanding of both the Iranian and United States cultures. It has elements that will draw in those interested in women's rights, immigration and displacement, Islam, the Middle East, racism, and--oh, yeah, people who want a really good love story.

Nahid Rachlin's Jumping Over Fire is an engaging portrait of an
Iranian-American family caught up in the midst of turmoil of an Islamic
revolution, hostage crisis, cultural tensions, and exile in America.
The protagonists, mainly Nora and Jahan and their American-Iranian
parents, are complex and very real. Nora's attraction to her adopted
brother Jahan is developed in the context of all the limitations she
feels as a young girl growing up in Iran. The passion, the skillful way
that the narrative unfolds, propel the reader to keep turning the pages.
At the same time Jumping Over Fire is a timely book that through its
characters illuminates the Iranian culture more intimately than the news
can.

Set against the backdrop of war , betrayal of a nation , death, mutilation , displacement and destruction, the tender awakening of desire in a pubescent girl!!! The story is so suspenseful that I was tempted many a time to read the last pages to find out the outcome. Nahid is the most eminent transcultural novelist in the US and with this novel she displays the utmost mastery of the art. She shows the universality of human expereince with words as precise as a surgical instrument. BRAVA NAHID !!! Parviz B. Mehri, MD, FACS. FICS

Nahid Rachlin's Jumping Over Fire is the intimately crafted story of an Iranian family who find themselves caught up in the midst of an Islamic revolution, corruption, a hostage crisis, and exile in America. As the family of the young Nora and her adopted brother Jahan struggle with their futile living conditions which results in their immigrating to America, Jumping Over Fire explores the daily lives of these two young people and their parents as they individually carry themselves through their new American circumstances. Jumping Over Fire is very strongly recommended, particularly for those with an interest in the all to common post 9/11 American mentality which may often be cold and cruel in the prejudice against immigrants from Islamic cultures and countries.

Nahid Rachlin has done it again, this time with a suspenseful story about a brother and sister united by a secret. The novel moves quickly, and the reader is left guessing from page to page until the surprising and satisfying conclusion. The author's knowledge of Middle Eastern culture gives the novel a very authentic feel, and I especially enjoyed the references to Persian poems and lullabyes.

Nahid Rachlin takes a step into the forbidden in this work where her protagonists do not only jump over fire, they plunge into it unable to escape the singeing results. Jahan and Nora grow up sharing childish things. But when a secret is discovered in an old file drawer...events force them to confront each other and their surroundings in ways they are not quite prepared for and cannot avoid. The Shah's Iran is not so unlike the Mullah controlled Iran of today, and yet the sights and delights of a simple market place are rendered in such a way that the reader almost feels she is walking among the shops abundant with "Customers, mainly women . . . looking in shop windows at displays of gold rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces studded with sapphires, rubies, and other precious stones." One can almost reach in and try the jewelry on.

Nora and Jahan share parents, but she looks more American (blonde and blue-eyed like her American mother), he like his exotic and handsome Iranian father. And together, hand-in-hand, chador be damned, these siblings embrace their inner fire, if only to assert their bi-racial individuality, their love for two very different countries, and each other.
Rachlin's prose flows across the page like jewels poured from a velvet drawstring pouch onto a glass table. Each gem sparkles on its own, but held collectively in the palm of one's hand the collection becomes a rare find of beauty and symmetry.

Nahid Rachlin is the only Iranian ex-pat living in America who regularly publishes fiction here for more than 25 years. In fall 2006 she is releasing her memoir, Persian Girls from Penguin. Grab it and devour it like her characters devour life in Jumping Over Fire.