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

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

This is a rage-fuelled book. It is ambitious in scope, utilising Persian literary/storytelling techniques in a magical realist way. At worst, it reads as a jagged mish mash of the two styles - veering between the immersion in a fantasy world, and the use of magic to sharpen the social analysis/realism. At its best - for me easily the chapter on political prisoners returning to drown Khomeini's house in tears and the book burnings - it hits very hard and gorgeously all at once: "It took three days and nights of diligent, obsessive cleaning before the puddles of tears were all mopped up from the recesses of the house on Rahbari Dead-end off Jamaran Street.He continued to find large puddles in strange places, however, into which he would stick the tip of his right little finger, taste it, and yell out in anger and fear, until 10:20 on the night of June 3, when Khomeini died. Once, when brushing his hand over the mantle in search of his glasses, he found it drenched in tears. He shrieked so loudly that for three days he couldn’t talk for the sore throat it had given him". With these exceptions though, this lacked the deftness that is needed to make the style work, especially the elements that move rapidly through settings.

The deftness is also missed in the depiction and analysis of the fight for democracy and the revolution in Iran, and the Iran-Iraq war. Azar's depiction of the war- including  explicit characterisation er narrator - is of a war of Khomeini's making, used to dupe gullible young men into dying pointlessly. A couple of characters also characterise the revolution of 1979 as an "Arab invasion" and there is an at times uncomfortable juxtaposition of Persian and Arab cultures, along with Zoroastrian heroes and (fundamentalist) Muslim villains.  There's no question about the accuracy of the crimes depicted here, but there is little space for the intellectual tumult that so many others depict in this period, nor is there any exploration of the tyranny of the Shah and the Pahlavi, or of the role of Iraq in invading or world powers in arms sales. Outside of the immediate circle of protagonists, the masses are often referred to or shown as stupid and mindless, contrasting with the intense mythologised life of the intellectuals at the centre of the story. There is so much amazing literature and non-fiction out of Iran - from the Persian traditions that Azar is paying homage to, mid-century writers and thinkers from nationalists to poets and contemporary writers including Ebrahim Golestan, Shahriar Mandanipour, Shirin Ebadi, Marjane Satrapi - that give fuller views of this complex, wondrous culture and it's current plight, that in the end I would find it hard to recommend this one.