StarAstrologer - Books : Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 820.9
EAN: 9780812971064
ISBN: 081297106X
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: December 30, 2003
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: December 30, 2003
Sales Rank: 3845
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.
Amazon.com Review:
An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity," she writes.
Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds. The great works encouraged them to strike out against authoritarianism and repression in their own ways, both large and small: "There, in that living room, we rediscovered that we were also living, breathing human beings; and no matter how repressive the state became, no matter how intimidated and frightened we were, like Lolita we tried to escape and to create our own little pockets of freedom," she writes. In short, the art helped them to survive. --Shawn Carkonen
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I loved this book, although I started it three times (over a period of two years) before becoming thoroughly engaged. After that, I looked forward to getting back to it every day and made sure to set aside a time and place to enjoy it, without interruption, as it took my full focus. I read the book first, then listened to it on cd's (narrated beautifully by Lisette Lecat). After sixty years of loving books, this one ranks among my favorites and I will enjoy rereading it many times.
Rating:  -
I picked up this book out of curiosity and wasn't sure what to expect. It reads easily, but there is actually quite a bit going on in these pages. I was pleasantly surprised to get so much out of one book. Nafisi effortlessly weaves her personal history and that of her girls into the larger story of the revolution in Iran. Not knowing much at all about the Middle East, it was a huge help to have the larger cultural/historical landscape explained. As if these threads were not enough, Nafisi decides ... Read More
Rating:  -
I slogged faithfully through this...it has been praised from there to here and everywhere, after all...but towards the end I laid it down & I just couldn't finish it. And that is a rarity for me.
I think the book lacks a true FOCUS. Perhaps the author is a good writer, perhaps the subject seems interesting, but somehow it never seemed to come together. And I am disappointed because I really wanted to like this book.
Rating:  -
I'll be honest with you. I couldn't finish this book. It's though refreshing and draws a great deal of westerners' attention to the oppressive Iranian society and regime but hey the author has written a very boring book. Maybe because I know the Iranian society pretty well and therefore the book is boring to me. I am not sure but I have heard three of my friends (Canadians and Americans) who read this telling me that they had a hard time understanding this book or how boring it was. But all in all, this ... Read More
Rating: -
The delivery time was excellent. I gave this as a gift, so I can't comment on the product.
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