Customer Reviews

Veil of Roses

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This author has a genuine voice that helps her characters be felt and understood. It takes a real talent for an author to allow her characters to be deep and fully formed. I appreciated reading a book with depth! The romance was an unexpected and fun twist. The details on the lifestyle and thinking of an Iranian woman was very enlightening to me as an American woman. I read this book quickly as it captured my attention and I needed to know what was going to happen with the characters. :)

I bought this book because it looked interesting. I had no idea what a powerful read it would be. I bought it and finished it in one day. It makes us as women really look at all the freedoms we have and how easy it is to take it all for granted. It is written in a way that just grabs you and wraps you into the story, you can feel Tami's emotions her terror, her excitement and her sadness. I would recomend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of a cultrue that most americans know nothing about. It sheds light on some traditions that we would find horrible and opressive and helps us better understand why these women deal with them and how. This book was great!

This book may be an interesting read if you have little or no knowledge about iranian culture, but if you know the culture well you can easily see that the author has no understanding of the culture and it's people. For startes the book is full of inaccuracies. For startes in one part of the book Tami (the main character) talks about how women in iran do not see male doctors. That is completely innacurate. Iran is not afghanistan. I think the author mixed up the Taliban regime with Iran. Though I am no fan of the iranian government, I don't think you need to portray Iran as a third world country either. Women in iran do go to male doctors!! The book also portrays Iranian as people that get married after a few dates. Though this may be true in some traditional and religious families in iran, again this is not the case with many. Even with the religious government and all it's restrictions many iranians have boyfriends and girlfriends, and people often date (though not publically) before getting married. All the iranians that I know here in America date before they get married. Overall, I think the author only has a limited knowledge of the culture, and it comes through and through in the book. If you want a more authentic understanding of the culture read wedding song, or funny in farsi.

Twenty-seven-year-old Tami faces a bleak future in her native Iran. Deprived of basic freedoms and confined to living with her parents until marriage, she fears that she will become as listless and depressed as her mother. Then a surprise birthday present comes from her parents-a tourist visa that will give Tami a chance to stay in America for a short time with her sister Maryam. Living permanently in America will only happen if Tami, with the help of Maryam and her husband, can manage to marry a "suitable" Iranian man.

Yes, Laura Fitzgerald's debut novel follows an old format. From the minute Tami meets handsome, charismatic Starbucks worker Ike on the way to her English class, readers will begin to have strong suspicions about future plot developments. Yet there are enough other pluses about the novel that will keep reading enjoyable.

Tami's wonder at all things American (everything from dealing with free samples to relishing life without her customary veil) adds freshness to the book, and her intelligence and determination to truly find love makes her a fitting heroine. As for her suitors-an outwardly successful Iranian with obsessive compulsive disorder and another fellow countryman who turns out to be different than anyone imagined-they add that kind of drama that makes one desparate to see how the plot "tangles" are resolved. Other supporting characters, like Tami's fellow classmates and her loving but controlling sister, add interest and texture to the story, even if they occasionally seem stereotypical.

This is a book that you can't help but enjoy, even if its somewhat simple and predictable nature means that it maybe deserves about 3.8 stars. By time you're finished inwardly cheering for Tami and falling in love with the deliciously romantic Ike, you'll find it hard to complain about this generally inspiring remix of the "immigrant story."

"Veil of Roses" was a quick read that was held my interest throughout, but I didn't find it to be one of those "stick with you" books. There are some books that I finish, treasure, and reluctantly loan out to others to read. This wasn't one of them.

While not a bad story, I found that it wrapped up a little too neatly for my taste at the end.

This was one of THE MOST PAINFUL BOOKS I've ever had to read. It was SO BAD that I stopped after I reached the middle mark, despite a continuing urge from page 7 to return the book.


What's so painful about this book - ***and I'm glad to hear this echoed in reviews done by those who have been to Iran*** - is that the author has the most stereotypical image of Iran and Iranian women. From the very beginning we learn that the main character of the story comes from a good and educated background, with her parents having met the first time somewhere in the U.S. while they were doing their studies. She seems to be from a middle-income class (if not higher-income) and relatively well-off. Yet (and here's the painful part) everything that she does in the book is a description of a lower-income, non-educated, very religious and rural woman, from the way she avoids eye contacts with men to the way both her and her sister get married based on practicality (how deep the husband's pocket is, U.S. citizenship, and so forth). Nothing, and I can't repeat this point often, NOTHING in this book about this women accurately reflects that of those women living in Iran with a decent education and a middle and higher income. I'm even going to say that not even those rural Iranian women with minimal education behave like this!

If inaccurate depiction of an entire nation is not enough to give someone a headache, the insensitivity of the author during such turbulent times will. Like many others, Laura Fitzgerald has taken advantage of an increased interest in the US on Iranian topics, be it politics or social issues, due the current status of US-Iran relations, and she has allowed herself - and I think she find this justified solely based on her marriage to an Iranian-American - to draw what she thinks describes the life and thoughts of an average Iranian woman both in Iran and in the US. Instead, and like a painter trying to draw the Grand Canyon without ever having seen it or a picture of it, she draws the stereo-typical image of an Iranian woman; one who is too shy to look in the eyes of men, one which has never had any meaningful relationship (even a minimal one) with the opposite sex, one who becomes a product for sale in the "marriage market" after having reached a certain age, and other false depictions. In these sensitive times, she manages to portray Iranian women in such a false sense for them to receive pity from the average Western reader, and perhaps to even dangerously urge a sense of "let's rescue those poor Iranians" as well.

I do not claim that Laura Fitzgerald's descriptions of the Persian women are completely and universally false. There are some, mostly the lower-income and uneducated rural women belonging to the previous generations, who behave exactly like Fitzgerald's understanding of Iranian women. Yet hers is not the story of those women, but an educated one, a Western one, and a middle-high income one. Whether she did it based on poor knowledge and information or lied her way through for because she's an opportunistic individual, it makes no difference: THIS BOOK IS NOT EVEN WORTH A DIME, and the worst thing I've ever spend my money on. The fact that those who have actually traveled to Iran and know how the average Iranian family and woman live their lives have given negative reviews of this book is only a confirmation of everything that I have said so far in this review.

I am most interested in the plight of Iranian women and found this book very informative while being a pleasant read. I have read other author's accounts but often came away from their stories a bit sickened by the abuse in Iran toward the wives and daughters. In this account, I liked Tami's awe toward American freedoms and the story that befalls her while in Tucson, AZ with her sister and her brother-in-law.

Tami arrives in Tucson on a three month visa her sole purpose being to find an Iranian-American to marry so she may stay. This puts so much pressure on the young 27 year old, but along the way she delights in some of America's quirky ways. From Victoria Secret, to Starbucks where men and women can be seen together, to Las Vegas, Tami finds joy in what those in the USA take for granted. With the help of her sister, brother-in-law and friends from her English speaking class, she weathers extremes. Her search for the husband is humorous to downright distressing, but it all makes for interesting angst, and a bit of mystery whether she may stay or return to oppressive Iran.

"Veil of Roses" has a sweet essence which helps the reader digest the ugly while exalting the beauty. A fine read!!!

What an amazing read! If you are getting a little bored with the predictable chick-lit, this is an excellent alternative. It's fun to read, but educational at the same time.
Check it out--you won't be disappointed!

I recently had the opportunity to hear "Laura Fitzgerald" speak at my school, where she graduated from here in Wisconsin. Afterwards she had a casual lunch with several of us (students and faculty) and I was so impressed that I spent $12.67 of the last $14 I had in my possession to buy this book. I now have less than $2 in my entire savings account, but I do not regret it at all.
I am an aspiring writer; my goal in life is to publish a book of my own someday. "Laura" was stunning - comfortable, kind, compassionate, and confident. I heard her speak of her Iranian-American husband and how she really does know many Iranian-born women as a result.
With this information I decided to buy "Veil of Roses" and the story is heartwarming. It is certainly a mainstream book and is contemporary versus classic or leaves-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat, but nonetheless it is a strong piece of literature. Targeted towards women from my age to middle-aged, there is something about Tami that every woman can relate to. I just finished the book a few minutes ago and knew I had to rave about it.
Tami's story is inspiring - she comes out of a depressive state and becomes a confident and independent, strong woman in the course of the novel. Although I read a one-star review here, criticizing the author for not being Iranian or spending time in Iran, I have to disagree. For its targeted mainstream audience, the book provides a glimpse into the life of a woman from Iran - it is not meant to be a historical book. The author, actually, knows many, many Iranian women and spoke in depth with them in order to paint the picture she did of Tami and her other characters. And though she is not from Iran, she manages to make Tami's story one of a woman - not only an Iranian-born woman but one with inherent dignity and self-respect, one with curiosity and wonder, and one with strength and courage that is immeasurable.
If you are looking for a historical book about the women of Iran, then this book is likely not for you and I would direct you to the world outside of novels/fiction. However, if you would like to read a romantic novel with substance, a fun and light-hearted book that is more than petty concerns, and the wonderfully-written story of a woman overcoming adversity, then make it a point to purchase this book and read it.
After you enjoy this novel, tell your friends (and their friends...) because, in all sincerity, "Laura Fitzgerald" deserves the utmost success.

This is such a stereotype of Iranian culture and Iranian women. Apparently the author has not done her research right and doesn't know what she's talking about. I was in Iran 4 years ago and what she's saying is not true. Women there wear more makeup, do more plastic surgery, are more up to date with latest European fashion, date, have outside marriage sex, get divorce and are very strong and educated than most women in U.S. Not that I consider most of these as praising attributes, but this is what's happening in Iran. Also, another thing is the author has such discrepancy in her story. First she mentions Tami was in U.S. till age of two and then when she arrives to U.S. as a 27 year old woman she's looking for a husband so she can get her residency?? Wasn't she born in U.S.?? This book is irritating and is truly a fiction with no sense of reality.