Customer Reviews

The Unknown Life of the Shah

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Forget about politics and strategy. This is the story of a man caught in a whirlwind of history. The story is told with as much pathos as a Greek tragedy. In fact, it is more poignant than a Greek tragedy because we know that what happens here happens to a real man made of flesh and blood, majestic and yet fragile as we all are. This is a love story within a love story within a love story. It is the story of he boundless love that the Shah had for Iran as he imagined it to be. This is also the story of the love that the Shah's wife, Farah Diba, who was half his age , had for him regardless of his many well publicised infidelities. It is also a story of betrayals. The Shah betrayed his bond with his people by becoming arrogant and aloof. His people betrayed him by dragging him in the mud and using him as a scapegoat to atone for their own sins. The United States and the Shah's other allies betrayed him as soon as they realised that he was being forced to bow out of the stage of history. The author tells the story with the pace of a thriller. Start the book and you shall not be able to put it down until the last page is turned. A Reader, Brighton, UK

Like most people exposed to the conventional view of Iran in the past decades I always regarded the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi as a brutal tyrant installed in Tehran by the United States to act as a policeman of the Persian Gulf.
That view had been propagated most intensely by our own liberals in the West who have always hated anyone who was with us while adoring anyone who was not. For example, they vilified the Shah of Iran but praised Fidel Castro as a revolutionary icon. In the early stages of the Islamic revolution, they also adored Khomeini and tried to market him as a kind of " pope-philosopher" attunded to his people's culture.
In " The Unknown Life of the Shah", Amir Taheri, an expatriate Iranian journalist and author,tries to present a fair and balanced portrait of the Shah.
This, of course, is no easy task. There is so much anti-Shah propaganda material around that no one could deal with them in a single book.
Taheri seems to have decided to ignore all the adverse propaganda material and , instead, concentrates on his narrative of the Shah's stormy life.
He bases himself on archives, copious notes that he took while working as a journalist in Iran (including two four-hour long interviews with the Shah himself), and interviews with over 100 people who knew the late monarch at different stages of his life.
The result is an authoritative biography that reads almost like a thriller.In it one gets a glimpse of the Iranian reality through the life of one man.
Taheri is by no means uncritical of the Shah and his book is not a panegyric. He shows how the Shah sunk into megalomania towards the end of his reign, taking himself for the saviour of th Free World. The Shah even created a special committee, of which Henry Kissinger was a member, to protect the Free World against Communism in the 1970s. The author also hints at the Shah's philandering, without goingin to salacious details that could have damaged the digjity of the book. There is also enough reference to corruption which had become a major problem in the last eyars of the reign. ( Although it was not as widespread as anti-Shah elements claimed at the time.)
Taheri is also critical of the Shah for having encouraged Islamist radicals as a means of weakening his own middle-class liberal orelftist opponents. In a sense, Khomeini was a direct product of the Shah's almost obsessive hatred of the left.
I have two difficulties with this book, however- hence the decision to give it only four stars.
The first is the author's focus on ther Shah's foreign policy rather than the domestic policies that ultimately mattered. Is this, perhaps, because many Iranians, as the author notes, firmly believe that the fate of their country is decided elsewhere? I would have liked more on the Shah's land reform ( was it genuine or not?) and his economic policy whch, to me at least and as Taheri himself hints, appears more socialistic than anything else.
The second problem I have is that the author does not dwell much on the many men and some women who helped the Shah rule so unruly a nation as Iran. As Bertolt Brecht said once: even Casear must havehad someone to make him soup when he was crossing the Rhine.
The author does bring in Amir-Abbas Hoveyda, the Shah's longest serving prime minister, Princess Ashraf, the Shah's twin sister, and , of course, Empress Farah, the Shah's last and logest-lasting of three wives. But I think those three, and many others such as the flamboyant ambassador Ardeshir Zahedi, would have merited greater attention.
All in all, however, this book makes you like the Shah. And that is a feat-considering the bitter campaign conducted against him for almost 40 years, especially an the height of the Cold War when he was the favorite target of the Soviet Union.
A READER IN LONDON

A generation ago the last Shah of Iran was seen by most people as a dictator engaged in some of the most complex politics of the Cold War.
In this book, however, we discover a fragile man, caught in the counter currents of a violent history.
It is as if someone re-wrote Macbeth to turn the principal character into Hamlet.
Which of the Shah's images was true? May be both. And the author of this book is careful enough to narrate in some detail some of the worst aspects of a 37-year long rule.The tragedy sufffered by the Iranian people since the fall of the Shah is only darkly hinted at.
In the end what counts is that this book is a fantastic read. It gives the reader a deeper insight into human character.
A READER, Paris, France

Almost a quarter of a century after he lost his throne Mohammad Reza Shah ¨Pahlavi remains at the centre of Iranian politics.
This book by Iran's leading journalist is the best on the late Shah because it reveals both the weakenesses ( all human) and the strengths of Pahlavi during his 37 year long reign.
At the same time this book could be read like a novel, full of twists and turns.
Rivniz Bibarg

As Iran comes under the limelights as the next candidate for regime change in the Middle East,anyone interested in the complex politics of that region could do no better than read this fascinating biography.
But even if a reader is not interested in politics , this book would still be a treasure trove as an enjoyable read.
The author, sympathetic to the Shah although never forgetting his shortcomings, shows that the Shah was a good man in a bad time.
Taheri compares the Shah to the wizard in the Wizard of Oz who says at the end of the film, when he is discovered, : I am not a bad man, just a bad wizard!
But even that may be a bit unkind.
Was Muhammad Reza Pahlavi a bad Shah?
Taheri does not believe so, and may be reflecting the sentiments fomented against the Shah by years of propaganda by his enemies.
The book shows that what the Shah offered Iran was the best deal posisble at the time.
As Iran braces for change it may still be the best deal it can get today.
A.Keame

The Iranian students who demonstrate against the mullahs in Tehran arebeginningto feel nostalgia about the time of the Shah. Many of these students were not even born when the Shah left his country for good, allowing the mullahs to take over.
This book, now also available in samizdat version in Persian, is certain to feed that nostalgia.
But the book's purpose and ambition seem to be grander.
The author is trying to show that the program that the Shah offered for Iran was the only realistic one, and remains the most attractive one today.
Personally I disagree with that thesis. But I liked this book because it is well written and sheds light on many dark spots of Iranian history.
A READER IN TEHRAN

This book is difficult to get hold of. But if you manage to find a copy, as I did after weeks of searching, it is worth your while. This is a modern classic in the art of writing biography, thanks to exhausitve research, intelligent analysis and a powerful prose. Taheri knew the late Shah personally and was the only Iranian journalist to have exclusive interviews with him on a number of occasions.

There is little doubt that Taheri's overall view of the late Shah is positive. Nevertheless, he does not hesitate to narrate and criticize the negative aspects of a reign that had many ups and downs.

To write the book, Taheri has interviewd more than 100 people who knew the Shah closely, among them Queen Farah Diba and Princess Ashraf.

The main interest of the book, however, is in the analytical light that the author sheds on many dark aspects of the Shah's reign.

Let's start with a confession: In my youth as a student in the US and then a businessperson in Iran I was an opponent of the Shah. Thirty years later, having suffered under the regime of the mullahs and being forced into exile, I know better. This is why I find this biography an eye-opener. I wish it had been published before the revolution to help people like me achieve a more balanced view of the Shah's long reign.

Taheri writes beautifully and with obvious passion for his subject. Nevertheless, he is enough of a professional journalist not to ignore the mistakes and , in some cases, even follies of his subject. Taheri depicts the Shah as a flawed person but a good man and a king devoted to his idea of Iran.

Iranians of all generations and those interested in Iran should read this book.