| Subcategories |
 |
Religion & Spirituality |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
written by Azar Nafisi
Studio : Random House Trade Paperbacks
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date : 2003-12-30
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
Released : 2003-12-30
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780812971064
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 357 reviews)
List Price : $15.00
Our Price : $2.43
|
|
| |
|
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. |
| |
|
Americancivilwar.com |
|
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 |
| |
|
| |
|
Pleasantly surprised |
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 to weave in one more - the relationship between literature, the Iranian revolution, and the personal lives of the girls. Best of all, I got the itch to revisit many of the classics mentioned in this book.
|
| |
|
Great topic, boring to read |
|
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 book was/is a necessary one to shed light on the problems of the Iranian society. 3 out of 5 stars |
| |
|
purchase only |
|
The delivery time was excellent. I gave this as a gift, so I can't comment on the product. |
| |
|
A delightful surprise |
It took forever for me to start this book because I didn't think I would like it. However, It was extremely well-written...I thought that the weaving of the history of Tehran with the story of the girls/women in the book club with the review of the books (the great gatsby, Lolita, and Daisy Miller) was done so seemingly effortlessly. I felt like I was learning so much about all three topics and was fascinated by each.
When I read this book, I was going through a very tough time at work...undergoing alot of institutional injustice. This was the perfect book to read during that trying time...I think it helped me to see that people can live inside of a world of injustice and ridiculous, illogical rules and still find art and beauty and love and friendship and that in some ways these things are cultivated more fully by repression and tragedy.
|
| |
|
Breathe It In |
Reading Lolita in Tehran is one of the most beautifully written books I have read. Full of lines such as "Life in the Islamic Republic was as capricious as the month of April, when short periods of sunshine would suddenly give way to showers and storms."
Another one I liked is: "A novel is not an allegory... It is a sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter the world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is the heart of a novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing."
She uses this logic with her own writing, drawing you in to revolutionary Iran. Deftly comparing and contrasting nightmarish, totalitarian scenes of the Islamic Republic's `morality guards' that feel like something straight out of 1984 with scenes and analysis from novels as diverse as Lolita and The Great Gatsby.
A very enjoyable and one of a kind book. |
| |
|
|
|
