A review by izzy_reads7
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It is hard to say if I had one favorite character in 'Disoriental'. I was engulfed by this family. The story is of Kimiâ Sadr looking back and telling the history of her family and 20th-century Iran. The family is the main character here, which, now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, is interesting because the main character talks about community being so important rather than the individual and their culture. The atmosphere while reading this book was completely amazing. It's like traveling to a different world. I have obviously never been to Iran. This book taught me the culture and history of Iran in the last century. At first, I thought the transitions from past to present were rather clunky. I think that is an issue with the translation. As the story went on, I found myself not really caring about its clunkiness. However, this is a very dense and slow read, but I think it's because I was learning so much and taking in so much information about Persian culture. This would be a great book to do the audiobook for while following along with the physical copy and annotating. That's something I have to keep in mind for when I reread it. The plot again, I love multigenerational family sagas, and you get that here. I loved learning about a place and culture that I wasn't really familiar with before or had preconceived notions of. We always hear stories about people going into exile from their homelands in the Middle East, and the story really showcased what that life is like, going from eastern culture to western culture and how difficult but freeing it can all be. I love this book, and I highly, highly recommend it.