A review by thebobsphere
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar

4.0

 

One thing I like about the International Booker is that I’m exposed to quite a few interesting books. Never would I have believed that one day I would be reviewing a Persian Magical Realist novel.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree breaks a lot of rules. First of all the narrator is dead. Secondly the book goes into some detail about the Iranian revolutions and there’s some scenes which guarantee a bit of chair squirming.

The narrator is Bahar and she is a ghost floating in and out of her family’s lives. Throughout the book she documents her family’s background, how she became a ghost and the destinies of her brother and sister. One is quite brutal and the other is surreal.

As this is a novel which focuses on magical realism, a lot of strange things occur : Black snow which kills all life, the narrator’s mother sitting on a tree for three days, underground glass palaces and mermaids ( imagine my delight when I read that passage)

Leaving the weird bits aside .. Greengage Tree is a political novel. Shookoofeh Azar writes about the kidnappings, torture, the cruel imprisonments, the book burnings (the book related sections are an absolute joy to read) and censorship.The thing is that no matter how bizarre these acts were, they actually happened.

I guess that’s the ironic aspect of this novel. Magical realism and the more cruel aspects of history can be blurred. By the end of the novel it’s difficult to distinguish between the two.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree did take me by surprise. There were passages which I read greedily, while there were others which filled me a sense of unease. Not too many books can play with your emotions like that.