Customer Reviews

Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran

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I loved Jason Elliots first book about Afghanistan, and expected to be engaged with this one. For the most part, I was - the rich culture, history and art of Iran, as well as the local customs and modern problems were brought out by his anecdotes. And tho I struggled with some of his musings about Persian architecture, its a topic I have an interest in. However, his verboise descriptions of poetry and poets, and of name after name of historic references, lost me several times, and so I skimmed a bit. Still - he is a wonderful writer, and I'd read more by him. Just wish I had more background to understand some of his narrative.

Mirrors of the Unseen offers an informed Englishman's perspective of Iran, pictured in the passages of experience of the author's seemingly random travels over three years, augmented by larger readings of history -- tempered by an apparent knowledge of the importance of mysticism in the Iranian worldview. Most media reviews of the book have been highly laudatory. One by an Iranian of dubious extraction, Amir Taheri, indicated some vitriolic distaste for the book's origin and message, raising my interest further. The latter review dwelt mainly on the missed opportunities of Elliot's visits, which merely confirms Elliot's own view that the culture of Iran is immense when viewed historically, and could not possibly be adequately seen in three years. Likewise, a cursory reading of Elliot's book would inevitably miss many of its deeper points, as did Taheri's. Elliot makes every effort to emphasize the importance of historical art as the purveyor of messages sent over the course of thousands of years -- messages not out of date, but bearing lasting practical value. As such, his book has worth both as a tale of travel by a modern Westerner looking, full of humor and humility, to understand another country, and as an entryway for journeys into philosophy and the meaning of art and science taken at a higher level.

When I picked up Mirrors of the Unseen, I was very excited since I had so enjoyed Jason Elliot's An Unexpected Light. At first, I was disappointed. In An Unexpected Light, Elliot concentrates on the people he met and the social structures he encountered. This was essential for understanding Afghanistan. Mirrors of Light is Elliot's impression of Iran. He sees the key to understanding Iran in the history of its people, as shown through the people themselves, the geography, and the art and architecture. Each of these provides important keys to understanding the Iranian psyche. In Elliot's view, these are much more important than the current fundamentalist regime. Once I grasped this emphasis, the book was much more interesting as well as enlightening.

Elliot sees the ancient Persian history, dating back three millennia, as the key to modern Iran. The deep understanding of faith, the past glories of Persia, and the representations of these glories in art and architecture are all interrelated. In Elliot's view, the current hot button of fundamentalist faith has only minimal effect on the values and lives of average people, much as many Americans and v ery spiritual, faithful people even if they don't buy into the fundamentalism that is espoused by many in the government.

Unfortunately the fundamentalism on both sides of the American - Iranian divide is what is reported in the press. Elliot gives us a view of Iran that can hopefully lead to peace rather than war.

By the way, IMHO I highly recommend that you IGNORE Elliot's Caveat Lector on page 319 and continue reading. If you skip these pages, you may miss the key to the entire book.

Elliot does his research well and writes with an understanding of the local culture. It helps too that he can read persian. I was expecting to find accounts of encounters with oridinary iranians and conversations with them revealing their attitudes and opinions. Instead, I found a travelogue filled with descriptions of art in Iran. It was just as nice to read of the history of art in Persia. He appears to be a genuine and hardworking student of persian art and works hard to decipher the intentions of the persian artists and convey their subtlties and magnificence to us.There are descriptions of encounters with locals. Amusing anecdotes of encounters with taxi drivers who are trying to rip him off his dollars or pounds.

All in all a very informative and interesting book.

Excellent, interesting hearing from someone who actually put their foot on the ground and reported the good & the bad. From our news publications we obviously hear only one side of the story. It's this type of book that draws humanity together rather than expanding on the differences.

No cosmopolitan musings about the relative merits of multiple swank laden hotels and resorts. No pointless stereotypical dwellings on the geo-politics of Saddam Hussein vs Khomeini. No histrionic rubbish about Thermopylae. Not a dull moment in the whole book.

This book truly made me re-think the way I view my heritage as a kid of Iranian descent. All the dull crud my parents and grandparents mentioned suddenly emerged from the pages of Mr Elliot's book, burnished anew to a dazzling sheen. I cannot recommend this book more highly for its insight into Iranian culture and the Persian civilisation(s) on which it's built.

Truly a timely and poetic read:)

The author apparently likes the Iranians since he travels a lot in the country and suffers to learn Farsi well enough that he can communicate in it. He is keen on meeting all sorts of people which is astonishingly not difficult in Iran which I found myself. The depictions of the author are absolutely authentic, especially marking the Iranian soul of people which is hard not to develop a liking in. Iranians are surprising friendly and hospitable as much as interested people. This is unfortunately not known abroad and the author takes efforts to change it as far as he is concerned. There is also some mathematics about the patterns of art and architecture and historic relations which can hardly been ignored when travelling through Iran. There is an outstanding heritage Iranian culture exposed in cities and sites. There is in deed not much about politics, although Iranians talk a lot about politics, even young student women confront you with it. And they are critical:
"The young were turning to drugs; worse, the government itself was making drugs more available and cheaper than ever, in the hope of stupefying an entire generation.. These, one sensed, were ills of a new and entirely crueller order than those of the past." That is to say, the Iranians did not like the Shah, but they d not like the mullahs either. And the government? "Thieves and plunderers, the lot of them!"
There are a few occurrences when the author tries to sense the atmosphere of places and get an inspiration. So when he describes the monuments of Isfahan:
"They shelter the embers of a creative magma which has surfaced time and again through periods of upheaval and devastation, producing masterpieces to the world in nearly all branches of art and under all of the nation`s most famous rulers...On the shock waves of conquest, the creative flame was borne far beyond its territorial origins and transmitted its energy to the arts of architecture of the last great empires of the world..."
Perhaps he would have made a good historian, with not much care about political correctness.
Interesting is also the attitude of many Iranians towards the Jews, which I could confirm. He lets one say: "People say the Israelis are the problem, but that is just politics. Of all the people of the Middle East, I have always thought the ones most like us are the Jews. I expect we`d get along with them if it wasn`t for that business with Palestine."
Iranians are also self-critical. "Where is Iranian culture? Not in Iran! It`s in New York, Paris , London... that`s where you should look for Iranian culture. Look outside at the street: what do you see? Poverty, misery, drugs - and everyone lying and cheating for a scrap of bread. That`s the only culture you`ll find here!" and "Europeans are ahead of Iranians because they do not lie". Not quite right, right?
The author also finds the Iranians keen on the opinions of foreigners about their country. "But behind all those questions loomed a single overreaching issue: that of personal liberty. " That is quite right!
To read this book means to get a broad view of Iran and its people. Nevertheless it has its lengths and I wonder how it is possible that after three years of travel and taking tremendous efforts to be able to write this book, so little could be achieved. The author is a good and talented writer. But too often, it seems, he has not much to say.

This book is a very detailed account of a British journalist's travels across Iran. It is packed with tons of details even if you really don't like them when reading diaries of a traveler. I am not sure if those detailed stuff were necessary at all. Any how, this book is fun to read. Takes you back and forth and give you a pretty good brief of the contemporary and ancient Iranian history and politics. Highly recommended if you want to learn about the Iranian ethnic minorities, Persian culture and language and food.

An interesting read for all ages!

It's true, you can't judge a book by its cover. I was so looking forward to reading this book, but was disappointed that it is only a dry description of the author's travels. If you are looking for a book that is more of a "novel" about Iran, this isn't it!