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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I really enjoyed this book. It's a memoir about Azar Nafisi's life through the help of other books. She was an teacher of literature in Tehran before and during the Iraq-Iran War. You expect wars to be fought for forward progression and improvement but that is not always the case. The Islamic Republic of Iran took away freedoms women had been enjoying and returned the state of things to oppressive. During this time, Azar created a book club for former students of hers, where they could sit in safety, without their veils and scarves, and discuss literature.
She studies Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, works of Jane Austen and works of Henry James. Through these books she and her girls find comfort and companionship. I loved her insights into each author.
It is an interesting way to write a memoir. I listened to an interview before reading this called The Republic of Imagination, done on Radio West with Doug Fabrizio. It was great, and I think that helped me enjoy the book a lot more because listening to Nafisi talk about literature and reading, and hearing how passionate she is about it really made me more interested in her. I would probably suggest if one was going to read this memoir to listen to that interview first.
One last thing: she is always talking about having Café Glace, which is ice cream with coffee poured over top. Sounds amazing!!
She studies Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, works of Jane Austen and works of Henry James. Through these books she and her girls find comfort and companionship. I loved her insights into each author.
It is an interesting way to write a memoir. I listened to an interview before reading this called The Republic of Imagination, done on Radio West with Doug Fabrizio. It was great, and I think that helped me enjoy the book a lot more because listening to Nafisi talk about literature and reading, and hearing how passionate she is about it really made me more interested in her. I would probably suggest if one was going to read this memoir to listen to that interview first.
One last thing: she is always talking about having Café Glace, which is ice cream with coffee poured over top. Sounds amazing!!
I hated reading literature in high school, but this book makes me want to try again, even with Madame Bovary. Nafisi is eloquent and insightful and so many times I wanted to highlight passages, something I never do.
On top of all of that, it felt very timely for me to be reading about a nation in a time of great change and losing democracy and rights to dictatorship. It was terrifying but also empowering to see the characters (both men and women) find ways to be true to themselves.
Lastly to the critics who say this book rambled and was hard to follow, well yes it did but I think that was kinda of the point. It read like a diary but the pages had been shuffled in time. Nifisi weaves between chapters like a dream or nightmare or perhaps waking from one. Or maybe she just wants to lighten the mood after a somber realization. At any rate, I appreciated the grouping of sections by authors (James, Austen, etc) which felt like she was teaching us in her class.
On top of all of that, it felt very timely for me to be reading about a nation in a time of great change and losing democracy and rights to dictatorship. It was terrifying but also empowering to see the characters (both men and women) find ways to be true to themselves.
Lastly to the critics who say this book rambled and was hard to follow, well yes it did but I think that was kinda of the point. It read like a diary but the pages had been shuffled in time. Nifisi weaves between chapters like a dream or nightmare or perhaps waking from one. Or maybe she just wants to lighten the mood after a somber realization. At any rate, I appreciated the grouping of sections by authors (James, Austen, etc) which felt like she was teaching us in her class.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
This book started off slow but then I really got into it. This author has motivated me to read more and to try and think about what I am reading more. Her writing is lovely and calming. It was also very insightful to learn about someone’s life living through the revolution in Iran.
Nafisi is a professor of English literature who resigned from her position in a Tehran university as a protest against increasingly repressive policies. Then she gathered together seven of her female students into a reading group, meeting regularly to read and discuss classics of Western literature, including Austen, James, Fitzgerald, and Nabokov, intending to "consider...how these great works of imagination could help us in our present trapped situation as women." The result is a skillful mixture of social commentary, memoir, and literary criticism.
Nafisi weaves back and forth among the strands of her university life, the events of Iran's cultural revolution, and the lives and thoughts of the students in the book group. A particularly compelling section presents a mock trial at the university in which Nafisi defends [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1273944449s/4671.jpg|245494] against accusations of Western decadence and irrelevance. I've read a number of reviews on Amazon accusing Nafisi of not presenting the whole picture, but really, it's a memoir, not a history, and for me at least, it succeeded quite well as that.
Nafisi weaves back and forth among the strands of her university life, the events of Iran's cultural revolution, and the lives and thoughts of the students in the book group. A particularly compelling section presents a mock trial at the university in which Nafisi defends [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1273944449s/4671.jpg|245494] against accusations of Western decadence and irrelevance. I've read a number of reviews on Amazon accusing Nafisi of not presenting the whole picture, but really, it's a memoir, not a history, and for me at least, it succeeded quite well as that.
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced