Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar

5 reviews

annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5 stars

I'm emotionally destroyed. 

The contrast between the beautiful writing with its heavy magical realism elements and the brutal realities of living through the Islamic Revolution of Iran was striking. 

While ostensibly about one family's experiences from 1979 through to modern day (though time is a little weird and it's hard to gauge exactly where in history events are occurring), it much more about the village, the people, and Iranian society at large. 

So much of this book is a metaphor and/or meditation on art and culture, grief and death, revolution and change, family, healing and harm, nature and spirituality. 

At times it's meandering, as we will expand out beyond our main characters and narrator, to other residents of the village or events far in the past that inform the present. So much of the book is talking about the loss of history and culture when revolution (any upheaval really) denies a society's past and deems it worth destruction. Similar things can be send for the inevitability of progress and the modern world's need to expand and encroach into traditional ways of life and natural environments. 

In manner ways modernity is the antithesis of magical realism - modernity and the drive for capitalism, religious orthodoxy, tyranny, autocracy, and control destroys centuries-old traditions, mythologies, and non-human inhabitants of our world (whether they be animals, or ghosts and jinns). 

I teared up towards the end - the senseless destruction of personal property, family history, and culture in the name of a regime, religion, or other purpose is awful and heartbreaking and all too real. I also found the last assault against two of the characters to be really hard to handle. In part because I'd been reading a lot of heavy things recently and my threshold as almost breached, but also because it reflects reality. 

The titular enlightenment, I found, to be both a blessing and a curse. To attain a higher understanding of the world, only to be uprooted and destroyed. And yet, after all the family's suffering, they were finally brought together through enlightenment of the greengage tree in death.


Overall, I really loved this book. I'm sad I didn't pick it up two years ago when I bought it, but it was worth the wait. The writing was so, so beautiful (I tabbed so many sections) and the musings on art and culture were wonderful. If you're interested in this time period of Iranian history, I really recommend picking it up. The author is a political refugee, and I think it's strongly reflected in her characters' and their experiences/perspectives of living through the Revolution. 

CW: sexual assault, death, torture, imprisonment, religiously-justified tyranny, death by fire, child death

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kateofmind's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Full review now at <a href="http://kateofmind.blogspot.com/2021/07/shokoofeh-azars-enlightenment-of.html">Kate of Mind</a>. TL;DR version: NOT TO BE MISSED. Best read along with The Book of Collateral Damage for maximum Persian gutpunch.

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sherbertwells's review

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adventurous dark emotional lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

An intellectual Iranian family leaves the chaos of revolutionary Tehran for a remote village that plays host to jinns, curses and otherworldly nature. Azar borrows heavily from Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude, and while she does not surpass her mentor fans of one will certainly find the other enjoyable and inspiring.

“Here and there a passerby who had missed the last buses looked up at the star-filled sky and wondered where the deluge was coming from. It was only the homeless addicts and vagabond lunatics whose inner eyes saw that a river of tears up Vali-asr Street flowed ahead of five thousand despairing, crying ghosts marching like a vanquished army, occasionally leaning against old plane trees and keening in a funereal lament” (76)

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jessamynb's review

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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ohlhauc's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
This book follows a family who retreat into the mountains of Iran following the 1979 Iran Revolution, trying to escape the social and political changes that were happening. It's told in a non-linear perspective following different characters, although all narrated by the same person. While there are several stories shared from secondary characters, this novel focuses on four: Bahar, the narrator who's a ghost and youngest daughter of the family; Beeta, her older sister; Reza, her mother; and Hushang, her father. She also has a brother, Sohrab but he's not much in the story. 

I absolutely loved this story! The writing was poetic yet straightforward, dark but hopeful. The magic realism was also done exceptionally well and imbued the characters' stories with an enchanting quality that helped to recover from the dark scenes. And there were dark scenes as this novel touches on several violent moments in Iranian history as well as heartbreaking reactions of characters to trauma.

While perspectives of multiple characters were shared, which is usually a narrative style I don't love, it worked here. Each characters' "chapter" felt complete in and of themselves so there weren't any loose ends, while still giving enough depth to feel a connection to the characters and feel the stakes at hand. 

That said, there were a few things that weren't perfect for me. One is that there were a few moments that were totally random, just as one character
turning into a mermaid
that might have pushed the magic realism just a bit too far. I also wished that there was more of an exploration of the historical forces and how they were changing the society at large and the characters themselves. While this was touched upon, most of that action happened off page and I would have liked  to see direct action.

Even though it wasn't perfect, this is a story that I will think about for years. It hooked me from page one and gave me the same feelings I had whilst reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is one of my favourite books of all time. In fact, the latter is mentioned a few times in this novel and there are quite a few similarities (although enough differences to prevent a direct comparison).

I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone.

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