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A review by emmavani
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar
3.0
There was so much that was wonderful about this book. Following a family of five through Iran's Islamic Revolution and into the millennium, the reader gets to follow each member on their journey, some longer and belabored, some short and belabored. Magical realism was woven in and out of the story effortlessly. The language was beautiful and the translator did a fantastic job.
However. It was SO dark. There were a few glorious moments of light, often when the characters talked about literature, but they were sparse. Every side anecdote and character involved someone losing their mind and walking into fire until they burned to death, someone being killed by a jinn, someone turned into a fish and then raped and then murdered. It took place in a dark period of Iran's history (there were 15,000 executions of political prisoners in the 80's alone, people's who's crimes were things like "having political books in their house" or "distributing pamphlets") but it was at times, hard for me to read. It was magical and beautiful, but I was relieved when it was over.
However. It was SO dark. There were a few glorious moments of light, often when the characters talked about literature, but they were sparse. Every side anecdote and character involved someone losing their mind and walking into fire until they burned to death, someone being killed by a jinn, someone turned into a fish and then raped and then murdered. It took place in a dark period of Iran's history (there were 15,000 executions of political prisoners in the 80's alone, people's who's crimes were things like "having political books in their house" or "distributing pamphlets") but it was at times, hard for me to read. It was magical and beautiful, but I was relieved when it was over.