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rdery 's review for:
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Azar Nafisi
This turned out different from what I initially expected it to be. It has many positives. It inspired me to pick up some of the classics that I've been putting off. Nabokov, Joyce, James and so forth. It changed my image of Iran in some way. But her writing is erratic, her message unclear, and her tone not easy to sympathize with.
That being said, certain passages made quite an impression. Describing how the women felt, constantly harassed and forced to cover themselves up with their chadors and veils, deprived of the sun and the wind on their skin, feeling alienated to the point that even their own bodies feel strange to themselves.. And then there's her constant struggle to come to terms with the 2 worlds she knows. The 'freedom' of the West, the feeling of being an alien in a place that by all definition, should feel like home..
Bottom line, being a memoir this is a book that one likes or dislikes depending on whether one can relate to it or not.
That being said, certain passages made quite an impression. Describing how the women felt, constantly harassed and forced to cover themselves up with their chadors and veils, deprived of the sun and the wind on their skin, feeling alienated to the point that even their own bodies feel strange to themselves.. And then there's her constant struggle to come to terms with the 2 worlds she knows. The 'freedom' of the West, the feeling of being an alien in a place that by all definition, should feel like home..
Bottom line, being a memoir this is a book that one likes or dislikes depending on whether one can relate to it or not.