Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books - Softcover

Nafisi, Azar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812979303 ISBN 13: 9780812979305

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2008

Synopsis

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azar Nafisi, a bold and inspired teacher, secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; some had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they removed their veils and began to speak more freely-their stories intertwining with the novels they were reading by Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, as fundamentalists seized hold of the universities and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the women in Nafisi's living room spoke not only of the books they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments.

Azar Nafisi's luminous masterwork gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women's lives in revolutionary Iran. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny, and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

About this title

Review:

An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to its repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels.

For two years they met to talk, share and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color". Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity", she writes.

Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds. The great works encouraged them to strike out against authoritarianism and repression in their own ways, both large and small: "There, in that living room, we rediscovered that we were also living, breathing human beings; and no matter how repressive the state became, no matter how intimidated and frightened we were, like Lolita we tried to escape and to create our own little pockets of freedom." In short, the art helped them to survive. --Shawn Carkonen, Amazon.com

Review:

"Resonant and deeply affecting . . . an eloquent brief on the transformative
powers of fiction-on the refuge from ideology that art can
offer to those living under tyranny, and art's affirmative and subversive
faith in the voice of the individual."
-MICHIKO KAKUTANI, The New York Times

"[A] vividly braided memoir . . . Anguished and glorious."
-CYNTHIA OZICK, The New Republic

"Certain books by our most talented essayists . . . carry inside their covers
the heat and struggle of a life's central choice being made and the
price being paid, while the writer tells us about other matters, and
leaves behind a path of sadness and sparkling loss. Reading Lolita in
Tehran is such a book." -MONA SIMPSON, The Atlantic Monthly

"A poignant, searing tale about the secret ways Iranian women defy the
regime. . . . [Nafisi] makes you want to rush back to all these books to
experience the hidden aspects she's elucidated." -Salon

"A quietly magnificent book . . . [Nafisi's] passion is irresistible."
-LA Weekly

"Azar Nafisi's memoir makes a good case for reading the classics of
Western literature no matter where you are. . . . [Her] perspective on
her students' plight, the ongoing struggle of Iranian citizens, and her
country's violent transformation into an Islamic state will provide
valuable insights to anyone interested in current international events."
-HEATHER HEWETT, The Christian Science Monitor

"An intimate memoir of life under a repressive regime and a celebration
of the vitality of literature . . . as rich and profound as the novels
Nafisi teaches." -The Miami Herald

"An inspiring account of an insatiable desire for intellectual freedom."
-USA Today

"Transcends categorization as memoir, literary criticism or social history,
though it is superb as all three . . . Nafisi has produced an original
work on the relationship between life and literature."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Nafisi's passion for books is infectious, and her description of the
effect of the revolution on its people is unforgettable."
-Rocky Mountain News

"[A] sparkling memoir . . . a spirited tribute both to the classics of
world literature and to resistance against oppression."
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Nafisi artfully intertwines her own coming-of-age in pre-Revolutionary
Tehran with the daily frustrations of her pupils. . . . [She] relates her
girls' moving stories with great sympathy." -Entertainment Weekly

"[Nafisi] reminds us why we read in the first place." -Newsday

"As timely as it is well-written . . . As the world seems to further divide
itself into them and us, Nafisi reminds her readers of the folly of
thinking in black and white." -Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Readers will have a new appreciation for the worn Nabokov and James
titles on their bookshelves after reading Nafisi's engaging memoir."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Nafisi's writing has painterly qualities. . . . She is able to capture a
moment and describe it with ease and melancholy. . . . Reading Lolita in
Tehran is much more than a literary memoir; it becomes a tool for
teaching us how to construe literature in a new, more meaningful
way." -Library Journal

"Brilliant . . . So much is right with this book, if not with this world."
-The Boston Globe

"I was enthralled and moved by Azar Nafisi's account of how she defied,
and helped others to defy, radical Islam's war against women.
Her memoir contains important and properly complex reflections
about the ravages of theocracy, about thoughtfulness, and about the
ordeals of freedom-as well as a stirring account of the pleasures and
deepening of consciousness that result from an encounter with great
literature and with an inspired teacher." -SUSAN SONTAG

"A memoir about teaching Western literature in revolutionary Iran,
with profound and fascinating insights into both. A masterpiece."
-BERNARD LEWIS, author of What Went Wrong?

"Anyone who has ever belonged to a book group must read this book.
Azar Nafisi takes us into the vivid lives of eight women who must
meet in secret to explore the forbidden fiction of the west. It is at once
a celebration of the power of the novel and a cry of outrage at the reality
in which these women are trapped. The ayatollahs don't know it,
but Nafisi is one of the heroes of the Islamic Republic."
-GERALDINE BROOKS, author of Nine Parts
of Desire and Year of Wonders

"When I first saw Azar Nafisi teach, she was standing in a university
classroom in Tehran, holding a bunch of red fake poppies in one hand
and a bouquet of daffodils in the other, and asking, what is kitsch?
Now, mesmerizingly, she reveals the shimmering worlds she created
in those classrooms, inside a revolution that was an apogee of kitsch
and cruelty. Here, people think for themselves because James and
Fitzgerald and Nabokov sing out against authoritarianism and repression.
You will be taken inside a culture, and on a journey, that you will
never forget." -JACKI LYDEN, author of Daughter of the
Queen of Sheba

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0812979303
• ISBN 13: 9780812979305
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400