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A review by alexblackreads
Let Us Water the Flowers: The Memoir of a Political Prisoner in Iran by Jafar Yaghoobi
3.0
I struggled a lot with this book. The subject matter is so interesting and important. It's a first person account of a mass murder of Iranian prisoners in 1988, and the writer was one of the first survivors to escape Iran to share his story with the outside world. But it wasn't particularly well written.
The beginning and final third were focused. Yaghoobi is arrested, tortured, and finds his place in the unfamiliar prison setting, and he shares this information well. Then the killings begin towards the end and his emotion ramps up. So much of what he says matters and it breaks your heart, not only to bear witness to the killings, but also to see his pain.
However, portions of this book were almost unreadable. His writing style is utilitarian at best, which would have been okay except his storytelling lacked focus. A lot of this book was just a play by play of the daily prison occurrences- what room he was in, who his roommates were, when food was served, the layout of the prison. If you want to understand the workings of Iranian prisons in the 80s, this is the book for you. But by the time I'm reading paragraph four about room assignments, I'm lost.
Overall, I'm very glad I read this book. I think it was worthwhile to hear his story and I learned a lot. But I also think there's a reason some people employ ghostwriters. Yaghoobi is obviously an intelligent man, but I don't think his writing did this book justice.
The beginning and final third were focused. Yaghoobi is arrested, tortured, and finds his place in the unfamiliar prison setting, and he shares this information well. Then the killings begin towards the end and his emotion ramps up. So much of what he says matters and it breaks your heart, not only to bear witness to the killings, but also to see his pain.
However, portions of this book were almost unreadable. His writing style is utilitarian at best, which would have been okay except his storytelling lacked focus. A lot of this book was just a play by play of the daily prison occurrences- what room he was in, who his roommates were, when food was served, the layout of the prison. If you want to understand the workings of Iranian prisons in the 80s, this is the book for you. But by the time I'm reading paragraph four about room assignments, I'm lost.
Overall, I'm very glad I read this book. I think it was worthwhile to hear his story and I learned a lot. But I also think there's a reason some people employ ghostwriters. Yaghoobi is obviously an intelligent man, but I don't think his writing did this book justice.