Customer Reviews

Persian Nights (Paladin Books)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

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?

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!

I wanted this book because I thought it would describe INTERESTING events happening in the life of an American woman in a Middle Eastern country. Not quite. It merely threw a few week's boring events together to create a boring story that went nowhere. The story is called "Persian Nights", yet the reader wasn't informed about the culture, customs or traditions of this mysterious land! The few somewhat eyelifting parts (that would seem difficult for the author to solve)somehow were suddenly patched (Noosheen and the whole passport thing). There were so many parts that could have gone somewhere and never did. Awfully boring.

I had read Le Divorce, Le Marriage and L'affaire before ordering Persian nights. I am very surprised by the negative comments here. Although the later books are very incisive as to the cultural and psychological differences between the French and their both loved and hated US friends, I find Persian Nights a very well written and interesting rendition of the suburban upper middle class wife and mother of the 70s. Feminism by passed college-educated Chloe. Instead she chose the safety of a marriage to a successful doctor. Even her volunteer work as a museum docent is safe. The most daring action she can muster is extra-marital sex. Thrust alone into the totally alien environment of pre-revolutionary Iran she sets off on a journey of self discovery and finds herself lacking in every aspect of her life. As danger, fear, disease, poverty and even death slowly creep silently into her safe cocoon Chloe 's transformation begins. Though in the past her impulses for action have always been stifled by a pervading apathy she increasingly abandons the safe role of the observer for that of the actor.
Persian Nights is a wonderful, insightful novel that very much captures the feel of the women's movement of the 60s and 70s cleverly staged vis a vis Iran's uprising against the superficially benign regime of the Shah. This setting adds to the complexity and interest of this work.

Brilliant book -- far more ambitious than Le Divorce, which I also loved (but is a very different animal). "Persian Nights" is witty and fascinating, a devastating character study.

Fast-paced, humorous, and very, very smart! This is Diane Johnson at her best. The main character is self-centered, blind to reality, and, ultimately, quite entertaining. The exotic locale and attention to detail are stunning-- respectful, accurate description of a corner of the world typically stereotyped and misunderstood. Johnson does a great job of bringing Iran to life.

This book is terrible. I am an avid reader and I am really sorry I wasted my time and money on it. The main character has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It was impossible to care what happened to this poor excuse for a women. How this novel could be described as fast-paced is beyond me. Three quarters way through the book I was still waiting for something, anything, to happen. At about this same point in the story the author tosses out a stream of vulgar language that seems to have no place in the book. Perhaps it is to get our attention away from falling asleep. Sweeping negative generalizations for nearly every ethnic group mentioned in the story abound. Iranians men are ridiculed right down to the size of their collective private parts. Was the author trying to be funny or just plain offensive? If you need to prop up the leg of a table perhaps this book would have some merit. How it could have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction I do not understand.

Like Le Divorce, Diane Johnson once again serves us a teaspoon of female angst in a foreign locale. I always find her books to be very funny, written in her unique sardonic tone. The only complaint that I have is that like Le Divorce, the book has a slow start and takes a while to get into. But the endings are always satisfying and action-packed. What I like most about her books is that Johnson always makes the heroine very human, but albeit likable. Chloe is obviously self-centered, but it becomes apparent how well this serves her by the end of the book. Lots of plot twists make this perfect beach reading. I reccommend it highly.

This was not a good book at all. Weak characters, unrealistic representations, and dull storylines mixed with a limited knowledge of Iran and Persian culture. The front cover literally illustrates this - a woman standing dressed in Arabian, not Persian clothing. Poor taste indeed.