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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Brilliant Tale Of Iranian Politics & Persian Romance,
By
This review is from: The Persian Bride: A Novel (Paperback)
This is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time. I found myself marking passages in the prose, so I could return to them later and savor them at leisure, without a rapidly moving plot to deter me. It is also a difficult book to read. As with much good literature, it is necessary to concentrate and read every word. This is not a novel that can be skimmed, or speed read. It is definitely not a light read. Filled with symbolism, and allusions to Iranian culture, the Farsi language, ancient poets and older cities, it is the love story of one couple, and the story of a nation in political, cultural and social upheaval. If you read carefully, with patience, the story will unfold for you like a beautiful Isfahani rose.A young Englishman goes to Iran in the mid-1970s. Many young American and European "hippies" passed through that country, beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through until before the revolution in 1979. Iran was on the way to India, the destination point of many young westerners. The Beatles and other pop stars had made India a mecca for the young with its gurus, cheap drugs, native music, mysticism, etc.. And Persia was a romantic place stop on the way - with its exquisite, impressive countryside, hospitable people, and romantic, gracious and exotic culture. So, John Pitt finds himself in Isfahan, a fairytale of a city. There he meets the enchanting Shrin Farameh. They love. They run away and marry. They struggle to combine cultures and language and to make a world for themselves amidst the chaos and political nightmare that is pre-revolution Iran. Their marriage also carries with it tremendous political & personal consequences. But I won't go there now and spoil one of the more enticing aspects of the plot. Suffice it to say, that the couple is violently & tragically separated. Following the separation, comes suffering that could read like a chapter out of Job. But John is never deterred from his mission to reunite with his wife and the daughter he barely had time to know. I lived in Iran from 1965 until 1968, and "The Persian Bride" brought so much of my experience back to me. It is a jewel of a novel - a masterpiece!
23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could Have Been a Great One,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Persian Bride (Hardcover)
Of all the places on the earth, I can't think of a more "foreign" place in the world to Westerners than Iran. Everything is different: the food, the architecture, the alphabet, the clothing, the language. Women can't go in public without a veil; all men and women pray submissively, facing the east; and the government is controlled by religious fanatics. And the history of the place goes back to the beginning of civilization. How fortunate then, that we come upon this novel, which purports to give us a glimpse of this society through the eyes of one of our own: an Englishman, at eighteen, who moves there in 1974 and stays there for good. And how unfortunate that this narrative is so clumsy, and so frustratingly difficult to understand.It is narrated in the first person by John Pitt, a young man who leaves England simply because he doesn't wish to be like everybody else, with their girlfriends and their music. He ends up in Isfahan, Iran, where he is able to get a job teaching English to high-school age girls. He falls in love with one of them; the Persian Bride of the title. It is the sort of life-defining, all-encompassing love that most of us have had only once in our lives, and some of us never at all. He elopes with her, and for about a year, they enjoy a somewhat idyllic honeymoon. But it is an ill fated love: she is the daughter of a prominent member of the Shah's regime. Their relationship is problematic enough initially, but after the takeover of the Ayatollahs it becomes impossible. She is taken from him and he is imprisoned, first by the Shah and then by the new regime. After many years he is given a chance to redeem himself by fighting for the Iranians against the Iraquis, and he does. He finally escapes from Iran, and spends the rest of the novel traveling through southwest Islamic Asia, searching for his love. It is a compelling story. Mr. Buchan clearly knows his subject matter and is competent enough to draw believable if somewhat imperfect characters. The love story is also very powerful: the actions of both his narrator and his bride make this clear. But for some reason, either intentionally or unintentionally, the author has created a complex puzzlebox of a narrative that is extremely difficult to understand. I can't tell you how many times I found myself riffling back several pages in order to figure out what I missed. A telling example is this: the narrator and his bride are travelling in a jeep, right after their elopement, on a sandy path in the desert night. She gets out of the truck and asks him to follow her. He does. About a dozen sentences later, he turns off the engine. Huh? Oh, he was following her in the jeep. I get it, but why doesn't he say so in the first place? His first meeting with her family is incomprehensible. There are several characters present: the father, a colonel in the air force; the mother, who may or may not also be the princess; the bearded liaison, who is also a servant, I think; and two daughters. A further complication is that much of their dialogue is spoken in untranslated French. I read this passage several times and have still not figured out who is who. He is separated from his wife while both are trying to escape Iran with the help of two drug smugglers. It is implied that the drug smugglers attempted to kill them both, but we are never really told in a straightforward manner. All we know is that the narrator ends up in prison, and that he doesn't know what happened to the girl. But he was there! Why doesn't he tell us what he knows? Why is this episode shrouded in mystery? Clearly, this omission is intentional. Is it an attempt to blanket the reader with the same confusion as the narrator? Maybe, but again, why? The book is filled with these confusing incongruities, small and large. Towards the end, he is lying in a filthy hovel in Kabul, dressed in rags, drunk, and unbathed. A well-dressed female French physician he has never met comes to see him. "Do you want to make love to me?" she asks. Huh? Then he meets his nemesis, the afore-mentioned drug smuggler. I think the drug smuggler dies. I know the narrator loses his arm. But how? Again, why doesn't he just say what happened? Islamic philosophy is strewn liberally throughout the novel. One of the tenets of it seems to be that we poor humans are not meant to know everything, and that we must submissively accept that which is beyond our understanding. Perhaps this is what the author is trying to convey. Perhaps. But, unfortunately, it is not going to be conveyed to the average reader, who after a hundred pages or so will angrily heave the book against the wall, never to pick it up again. I don't regret reading this book. I feel like I learned a little something of Iran before and after the revolution, and I was touched by the enduring love story. But I'll never read it again. It is a book, sadly, that is destined for obscurity; a ninety-nine cent special in the library basement.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unforgettable,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Persian Bride: A Novel (Paperback)
I am still affected by the harsh beauty and exquisite tragedy of the "Persian Bride." James Buchan's writing is wonderfully elegiac and moving. As a story, "The Persian Bride" comprises a bittersweet tale of a hastily contracted cross-cultural "marriage" made under the tensions of imminent revolution. Happy go-lucky John Pitt, a sweet unfocused Englishman bums his way through Isfahan as an English language teacher of dubious merit during the 70's. When he meets Shirin, an Iranian schoolgirl from Isfahan's ruling elite, he appears to meet his destiny. He is a romantic, unreasonable eighteen year old and an orphan. As such, he is not prepared to take on a Persian bride of royal blood.He is also far too young to realize it. "Pitt" takes Shirin away from her attenuated family, hoping to leave the country. This proves difficult since not only is the Persian Bride's father a calculating Iranian general aiming to fill the imminent power vacuum, but other loftier persons are keeping a discreet eye on the couple. Pitt's persistence and high-flying naivete drive the opening plot of "The Persian Bride" with an especial sweetness, winning the heart of Shirin. John Pitt and Shirin Farameh begin to live as amn and wife at an apex of time that can only grow more dangerous. The character of Shirin Farameh, the self-same bride is a complicated, rich character. She shows us the unique mettle of Iranian women who adhere to custom while embracing the inevitabilities of modern life. After the elopement, there is inevitable separation wrought by revolution and the thin survival of wrenching upheaval. The amazing romantic undercurrent signified by John and Shirin makes this story palpate. "The Persian Bride" also offers a painful look at the great unloosening of Iranian society as the ancient regime totters and mullahs take power. "Pitt" maintains his western orientation to the point of peril but he also develops strong sympathies for Persian language and culture. His study of Iranian poetry as a means to apprehend his enigmatic wife is an especially artful aspect of the book. Buchan's prose is nuanced and mature, not in the least sensationalistic. While the "Persian Bride" is not a thriller per se, the story occurs in what rapidly becomes an excruciating place for Europeans. "Pitt" spends some truly frightening moments in Evin Prison during the hostage crisis (and beyond) where he is interrogated as a spy. It is here that we glimpse the heart-rending beauty of Persian mores and manners, as he coexists with doomed immates who are the scapegoats of the revolutionary regime. Pitt obtains release from prison by volunteering for the Iraqi war front in a desperate attempt to leave prison and search for his family. Despite heartbreaking setbacks, John Pitt never gives up. The haunting emotional context of John and Shirin's romance is the strength of this book. I highly, highly recommend this book. I hope to see more writing by the author.
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