Persian Nights [Hardcover]

Diane Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1987

Chloe Fowler is the most unliberated woman she knows: disarmingly delicate and pretty, and not averse to putting either attribute to its best use, married, young, and satisfied with her normal American life as wife and mother. Yet Chloe is about to be liberated from everything she has ever known—in a place where her ordinary notions of reason and reality will run headlong into a wall of intrigue, and where every idea she has about herself will be put to the test.

While visiting Iran with her husband, Chloe is left to travel alone when he is summoned home unexpectedly. Much to her surprise, she finds herself drawn to the life she encounters in Iran; intoxicated by each exotic sight which reminds her how far from home she really is; both comforted and unsettled by the group of foreign and Iranian physicians and their wives who take her in. However, her exhilaration crashes when her rooms are searched, and odd, often frightening events begin to occur, exposing the darker side of this "colonial life." Persian Nights follows Chloe on a voyage through the seductively inexplicable, and has all the qualities one expects from the gifted author of Le Divorce—the quirky, vivid atmosphere; the intelligent, humane voice; the compelling narrative. Once again Diane Johnson delivers an entertaining novel of an appealing woman caught up in a mysterious world of change and intrigue.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Chloe Fowler is traveling with her doctor-husband to a temporary residency in prerevolutionary Iran when he is unexpectedly called home. Chloe, not a feminist but an adventuresome woman who had planned to study Sassanian pottery while in Iran, is persuaded to go on alone. Once accustomed to her exotic new environment, she becomes involved with one of her husband's colleagues, to whom she had been attracted in the past, and develops an affinity for the people and the country. As she slowly begins to rethink her life, the tense political climate moves toward the onset of the revolution and evacuation of Americans. In her sixth novel, Johnson masterfully blends politics, self-discovery, love, and death, and the meatiness of her style reflects an impressive knowledge both of Iranian culture and of basic human relationships. Recommended. Kimberly G. Allen, Supreme Court Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

...funny, incisive, frightening and eminently skillful. -- The New York Times Book Review, Jayne Anne Phillips --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (March 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394558049
• ISBN-13: 978-0394558042
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,350,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hideous Protagonist!, August 5, 2000

By 

R. Peterson "I'm worldwide..." (St. Thomas (USVI)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Persian Nights (William Abrahams Book) (Paperback)

Read by my bookclub months ago, I finally picked this one off the shelf and gave it my best shot. The protagonist, Chloe Fowler, is the wife of a doctor who has chosen to spend the summer in Iran, working in Shiraz at the Azami Hospital. In London on the trip out to Iran, her husband, Jeffery, is suddenly called back to the States to tend to a dear friend who has had a terrible accident. Jeffrey encourages Chloe to go ahead and he'll meet up with her later (he never does). Chloe's world in Iran is a chock-a-block of doctors and their wives (some American, some Iranian, some European) who live and work in the Azami Compound. It is the summer of growing discontent in Iran and the book ends with them all fleeing as the hostages are being taken at the US Embassy in Tehran (although they are oblivious to that fact as they line up in the airport to buy caviar). Although this book was very well written, I had a terrible time identifying with Chloe. She is self-centered, unliberated, a pretty, empty-headed thing who has very little sense of what is happening around her and seems way too preoccupied with her various affairs to care. Although the stage for this novel is Iran, it could have taken place in any developing country. Johnson attempts to make us see that Chloe has some redeeming qualities in her amateurish quest to better understand the Persian poets or some of the archeological sites they all visit en (tourist) masse. But the result does not move me. Chloe is still a bonehead, and has more than she deserves in life. I finished this book wishing that it had been written about one or another of the more interesting, less shallow peripheral characters in Chloe's little Iranian world.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Self-Absorbed American in Arabian Nights Tale, April 12, 2000

By 

F. Becker (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Persian Nights (William Abrahams Book) (Paperback)

After reading some of the negative reviews here, I was a bit trepidatious when I started this novel, but after reading and enjoying Le Divorce (despite its many negative reviews on Amazon), I decided to give it a go. Suprisingly, it was not horrible at all. I found it a very fun and enjoyably light read, with typical Diane Johnson characters, self-centered, blind to their surroundings, and not altogether pleasant. Actually, I found this plot much more cohesive than Le Divorce (for which Ms. Johnson was nominated for the National Book Award), with fewer loose ends. But I would still have preferred that she stay away from the political intrigue-type shenanigans (which she never really explained satisfactorally) and stick to her characters, whom she writes about with great wit and charm.

I did not find the book at all boring, as some earlier reviewers have described, and am completely puzzled as to the reference of a "string of 4-letter words." I certainly didn't notice any. I wonder if we read the same book?

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, September 28, 2002

By 

Melodie (Paris France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Persian Nights (William Abrahams Book) (Paperback)

The content of 'Persian Nights' was very vivid and realistic, so I was immediately transported into the story. I could easily identify and empathise with a lot of the feelings and emotions there, particularly concerning those of the main protagonist Chloe, and I could also clearly imagine the sort of atmosphere evoked. The characters were portrayed in a very human, 3-dimensional way with both their qualities and faults exposed. I enjoyed the transparency of their inner thoughts and emotions. The story went at a nice pace, there was a good sense of humour, tension, disturbance and suspense, especially towards the end, local colour and detail added exoticism and charm, the plot was compelling with little unexpected and original twists at times. Overall the book is very rich, there is a lot in it, worthy of a re-read or even chosen for a book study group. I came across the book by accident, my first impression looking at the cover and blurb was that it might be about a uncultured, ignorant American woman who blunders through Iran constantly hostile and complaining at the culture shock, and so I chose to read it for entertaining, humorous and light holiday reading. However it was refreshing to find that the protagonist was not only cultured, liberated, professional and sophisticated, but that she bravely attempted to integrate into Iranian culture in her own way and had good intentions to make the most of her short stay there through studying the language and improving her knowledge of local artefacts (she worked part-time in the University library and took out some heavy reading!). Thus I admired the character and learned a lot from her too. I wish I were as strong and brave, and sometimes as good, as she was.
Although not explicit, you can deduce fairly quickly that the political backdrop is Iran in the 70's, the time leading up to the Iranian revolution . If you want to read a detailed account of the political or cultural situation of Iran at the time, (as some readers seem to have wanted to do - I wonder why they don't just look up the encyclopaedia?), then you might be expecting too much from this book, which in its 300-odd pages packs a lot more in besides. If you keep an open mind and want to be enriched emotionally and intellectually, then you will experience the joy of top quality writing. There is no mystery why the author's books have been selected for various prizes. It certainly makes me want to read all of the other Diane Johnson books and pretty soon. I'm already a fan! I must admit I was rather shocked at the negative comments and low-star ratings for 'Persian Nights'. Are all these readers reading the same book? The book deserves at least four stars on average. Thank you Diane Johnson for an excellent book!