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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
At the risk of lowering my Amazon.com rating...,
By
This review is from: Reading Lolita in Tehran (Hardcover)
(Note: For some reason every time I have to write a one or two star review, folks who loved the book seem to come out of the woodwork to vote that my review wasn't helpful thus lowering my Amazon.com ranking. I have a hard time believing that only my negative reviews are poorly written. I firmly believe that reviews should cover all opinions and not just serve as love fests, thus, here is my barely one-star review for "Reading Lolita in Tehran." Vote away.)
It is truly beyond me how this book has touched so many readers. Nafisi basically supplies 340 pages of English literature lectures on traditional Western canon books (ie: "The Great Gatsby," "Pride and Prejudice," "Daisy Miller," etc.)interspersed with mostly factual information (vs. any type of emotional insights) about her life in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1990s. Nafisi's writing is scattered, often flipping back and forth between discussion of a text and discussion of a person or factual event but often not truly distinguishing between the two. Time frames are non-existent. Insight is near to nil and the few insights that are touched on are repeated ad naseum. By page 28 I had written myself this note, "Okay, we get it - the regime is individuality crushing and bad - especially towards women who feel forced to live double lives - one in public, one in private. Can we get on with things now?" Unfortunately, we never do get on with things. Perhaps the repetition would not be so bad were it not for Nafisi's own tyranny in her classroom - demanding that her students read and appreciate exactly what she does. Much later in the book, she is then shocked when she discovers that her students are repeating her lessons to her verbatim and tries to see it as a consequence of the political climate and not of her own teaching style. The only authentic emotion exuding from Nafisi's writing is guilt. Her own guilt at deciding to leave Iran for the US is crystal clear and understandable. She writes of a student who says, "If everyone leaves...who will help make something of this country? How can we be so irresponsible?" It was touching to find such a true sentiment in the midst of all of the more rote topics. Overall, Nafisi details her bourgeoise lifestyle in war-torn Iran where she occasionally lives vicariously through those who had lives much more directly affected by the war and the political climate, and constantly lives vicariously through her outdated and overrated books and lesson plans. I found Maureen Corrigan's book, "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading" to be a more enjoyable "memoir in books." Despite it's lack of interesting locale, Corrigan is able to garner real life lessons out of general fiction and literature. I would recommend it to anyone who liked "Reading Lolita in Tehran."
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyday Life - A Battleground,
By
This review is from: Reading Lolita in Tehran (Paperback)
Imagine...Having to hide a satellite dish for fear of being arrested and thrown in prison,having to hide your face with a veil,your body with a robe,your head with a scarf,and God help you if a couple of loose strands of hair are sticking out. Imagine living under such a strict regime that a woman can not walk down the street with a man who is not her husband,father or brother,of having to scramble to different tables in a restaurant where a raid is going on, if you are sitting with a man who is just a friend. Imagine being subjected to body searches for no reason, of being jailed and quite possibly executed for having an opinion not accepted by that regime.Imagine the books you love, great and classic literature by Nabokov,Austen,James,and Fitzgerald, hard to come by and considered evil propaganda. And if fearing what your own countrymen can do to you is not enough, now imagine all that, with bombs going off constantly for years, landing so close they flatten your neighbors house and kill everyone in it. This was everyday life, a battleground of fear from all sides, for professor and intellectual Azar Nafisi. She only wanted to read, teach and discuss her favorite works of fiction.
Those are just a few of the injustices and life threatening situations, described in "Reading Lolita In Tehran". After refusing to wear a veil to her job as a teacher of Literature, sticking to her own agenda of books considered controversial, Nafisi formed her own little group of women to study the great books mentioned above. She considered them "her girls", like an Iranian Miss Jean Brodie. They discussed the great works of Lolita, The Great Gatsby(this one was put on trial by her class at the University - imagine putting Gatsby on trial!), Pride and Prejudice among others, as they met in secret at Nafisi's home sans the robes and veils revealing their jeans and bright colored T-shirts, along with their inner most thoughts. They saw themselves as the heroines of the fiction they read. They discussed their sometimes unimaginable situations,their deep faith,the deaths of their friends, and the political times they lived in. Azar Nafisi writes of how this group came to be, how these young women defied authority by studying unacceptable fiction. The girls themselves each have quite a background and stories of chilling experiences. Considering themselves lucky for only getting 5 years in prison for expressing their opinions instead of death in some cases.You can't help but feel a bond with each one of them. Nafisi also takes us back to the years before the group. She writes of life of in the "Islamic Republic of Iran",of teaching at the University of Tehran, and the extreme authoritative figures that ruled. Her writing seems to go off on tangents and some times it is a while before we are brought back full circle to the point, but I have to say, that every word she writes seems important to this story, and well worth reading through. She brilliantly interweaves the theme and characters of the books with the way of life in Iran. This book left me deep in thought about the things I read in it. It was an up close and personal look at life we've heard about, but always seemed so far away. It not only touched me deeply and emotionally but I learned so much about the history and politics of the country as well. It certainly made me appreciate my own life much more. Highly recommended read for everyone, and may be an especially deep discussion for book club groups.This edition has questions for discussion included. It is quite a bit to absorb, but one that I will read again someday...Enjoy the read...Laurie
11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A deeply affecting memoir,
By
This review is from: Reading Lolita in Tehran (Hardcover)
Azar Nafisi introduces the world to life as a teacher in Iran, from pre-revolutionary days, up through the revolution and war with Iraq, the aftermath and her inevitable, and sadly final, flight from the country. Written with the poignant voice of a survivor, woman, wife, and mother, the claustrophobic grief and rage that settles over the country and affects it's citizens for years is clearly felt by the reader, a pleasant surprise considering the simple, matter of fact voice Nafisi uses to tell her story.
Secretly bringing women together from different religious and social backgrounds, in a country where these things are all that matter, to read, pore over, and discuss banned and dangerous books, puts Nafisi in the role of a hero. She is someone who fought for what she believed in, and her courage in the face of tyranny becomes an inspiration to the opressed everywhere. Nafisi's stories, and those of her beloved Tehran, intertwine with classic Western novels that she loves and depends on. Vladimar, Fitzgerald, James, and Austen provide a world into which these women can escape, one where they are not forced into invisibility, punished for eating apples too seductively, jailed, lashed, or otherwise beaten and tormented. Read as they shed their veils and risked everything for something that we all take for granted- the right to read a good, classic book.
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