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A review by gingerwithasoul
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar
2.0
It is difficult to find books in the US in both Farsi and English, so I was quite excited to find this one: a book my husband and I can read together. I read it in English and my husband in Farsi.
He abandoned it at Chapter 12.
I finished it and feel conflicted. On the one hand, I love the cultural mysticism and ancient religion woven throughout the story. The beginning is strong. On the other hand, the strong beginning gives way to a muddle of magic that detracts from the story rather than adds to it. The folktale style of writing loses emotional depth on heavy topics as everything is told from the viewpoint of a narrator watching above as opposed to the characters experiencing it themselves. It is fun at first but gets tiring eventually. I would think perhaps that magical realism is not for me, and it is true it is not what I usually reach for, but I have enjoyed other novels in this genre. Life of Pi is one of my all-time favorites.
It is like a collection of short stories with a thin thread holding them all together which makes it a structural mess of a plot. Individually, a folktale style, magical realism, and lack of a coherent story would be fine, but I think it is the combination of all of the above that made it such a difficult read for me.
The final nail in the coffin is as we get to close to the end. I really don't know why she wrote it the way she did, as if all of Iran now 30-40 years post-Revolution supports the government and hates the West. The only thing I can think of is that she knew it would sell, and on that point, she is correct. Yet this type of Western pandering does nothing to help the Iranian people. This notion of people standing around burning flags and yelling "Marg bar Amrika" (or England in this specific novel) and assaulting and arresting men who wear neckties makes it appear as if most Iranians support the government, thus giving it legitimacy. In the US at least, this type of view fuels racism on the Right who reason that Iranians hate America and would be happy to drop atomic bombs on our shores and isolationism on the Left who reason that if the Iranians support their government, it's none of our business.
My husband found this scene of the man arrested for buying a necktie utterly ridiculous in present (or near present) day Iran. This type of depiction gives the wrong impression to non-Iranians of Iranians and their views on the West in a way that is unfair and not representative of the majority. Do some participate in such endeavors? Certainly. We see them on television often enough. But her only depiction of Tehran and recent Iran are the same angry mobs Westerners see on TV, and is not an accurate representation of the current state of affairs. This is ultimately what loses me in this novel. It is a novelized version of headlines from CNN and contains no nuance at all.
He abandoned it at Chapter 12.
I finished it and feel conflicted. On the one hand, I love the cultural mysticism and ancient religion woven throughout the story. The beginning is strong. On the other hand, the strong beginning gives way to a muddle of magic that detracts from the story rather than adds to it. The folktale style of writing loses emotional depth on heavy topics as everything is told from the viewpoint of a narrator watching above as opposed to the characters experiencing it themselves. It is fun at first but gets tiring eventually. I would think perhaps that magical realism is not for me, and it is true it is not what I usually reach for, but I have enjoyed other novels in this genre. Life of Pi is one of my all-time favorites.
It is like a collection of short stories with a thin thread holding them all together which makes it a structural mess of a plot. Individually, a folktale style, magical realism, and lack of a coherent story would be fine, but I think it is the combination of all of the above that made it such a difficult read for me.
The final nail in the coffin is as we get to close to the end. I really don't know why she wrote it the way she did, as if all of Iran now 30-40 years post-Revolution supports the government and hates the West. The only thing I can think of is that she knew it would sell, and on that point, she is correct. Yet this type of Western pandering does nothing to help the Iranian people. This notion of people standing around burning flags and yelling "Marg bar Amrika" (or England in this specific novel) and assaulting and arresting men who wear neckties makes it appear as if most Iranians support the government, thus giving it legitimacy. In the US at least, this type of view fuels racism on the Right who reason that Iranians hate America and would be happy to drop atomic bombs on our shores and isolationism on the Left who reason that if the Iranians support their government, it's none of our business.
My husband found this scene of the man arrested for buying a necktie utterly ridiculous in present (or near present) day Iran. This type of depiction gives the wrong impression to non-Iranians of Iranians and their views on the West in a way that is unfair and not representative of the majority. Do some participate in such endeavors? Certainly. We see them on television often enough. But her only depiction of Tehran and recent Iran are the same angry mobs Westerners see on TV, and is not an accurate representation of the current state of affairs. This is ultimately what loses me in this novel. It is a novelized version of headlines from CNN and contains no nuance at all.