Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books Paperback – Deckle Edge, November 4, 2008

I chose to read Reading Lolita in Tehran because I am currently in the middle of reading Lolita. I am very happy that I chose to read this book, it is beautifully written and powerful. This book details the authors, Azar Nafisi’s experiences in Iran after the revolution and her move to America. The book focuses on a class she teaches in her home, during the class they read forbidden western classic books including Lolita. This class gave Azar and her students a chance to take a break from he restrictions of the Islamic State, and gives them the freedom to express their individuality and opinions. I would highly recommend this book, especially to those who value individuality, individual freedom, women's empowerment, and those who appreciate he power of fiction. Personally, I plan on rereading this book in the summer after I finish reading Lolita, so that I can better appreciate Reading Lolita in Tehran.Azar Nafisi's writing style lacked a lot of dialog, but made up for it with lots of descriptive language and powerful comparisons. The dialog that was included was appropriately placed within the memoir. Azar Nafisi is a talented story teller and while you read her book you can really envision the situations she was in and experience her feelings. A powerful composition made to compare Azars students to classic Greek characters is “Their mistakes, like the tragic flaw in a classic traded, become essential to their development and maturity.” (Nafisi 223). She uses Greek characters hamartia’s to relate to her young students. The student’s choices and mistakes help them become who they are by the end of their final class. Another great comparison was used to compare the students to some of Jane Austen's characters, “Austen’s protagonists are private individuals set in public places. Their desire for privacy and reflection is continually being adjusted to their situation within a very small community which keeps them under its constant scrutiny. The balance between the public and private is essential to this world.” (Nafisi 267). This comparison was used to show how important he class was for students to have their own private space to be themselves without strict laws getting in the way. The examples Azar uses are good for keeping the reader engaged and help them develop a clear image of Azar’s students. The most appropriate audience for this book is someone who doesn't expect a lot of intense action or dialog, but can appreciate hearing personal complex thoughts and feelings.Even though I've never been in any situations similar to Azar Nafisi I was able to feel for her and think of points in my life that I felt similar emotions to hers. For example, I can relate to her students and herself feeling trapped without a private life. Being in high school while being controlled by adults can feel like I have no private life, but this is so different and less intense compared to Azar Nafisi’s experiences, regardless she makes it easy to relate to her emotions while reading the book. Azar did an incredible job of describing her students on a very personal level. She made it easy to understand their internal and external struggles. To a degree you were able to choose who to like and dislike, but most of Nafisi’s descriptions determined who you would trust and distrust. Nafisi’s explanations of characters struggles helped me better understand the characters as a whole, like this explanation of a characters relationship with wearing her scarf and the governments mandated dress code “…the revolution that imposed the scarf on others did not relive Mahshid of her loneliness. Before the revolution, she could in a sense take pride in her isolation. At that time she had worn the scarf as a testament to her faith. Her decision was a voluntary act. When the revolution forced the scarf on others, her actions became meaningless.” (Nafisi 13).By explaining the shift in the meaning of Mahshid wearing a scarf it allows the reader to better relate to her and have sympathy for her situation.Azar did not write this book in chronical order. Instead the book jumps around in time from when she worked at a small university, to a large university, to her private class, and to moving to America, all of this is talked about but not in order of when the memories and situations happened. The way she does this doesn’t confuse the reader because she makes it clear what point in time she is describing within each chapter. This book was engaging the whole way through. Azar holds the reader’s attention by emerging them in the lives and emotional struggles of not only her students but her own life as well. Azar writes about many examples of the Islamic state restricting women’s rights and freedoms, she writes about how this effected students and herself. One student, Vida, is written about expressing her anger when she showed her rage regarding the regime’s new laws “‘The law?’ Vida interrupted him. ‘You guys came in and changed the laws. Is it the law? So was wearing the yellow star in Nazi Germany, should all the Jews have worn the star because it was the blasted law?” (Nafisi 134). By sharing Vida’s outrage with the reader they can become invested in Azar’s students’ lives. While reading this book I learned about what life was like for the people, particularly women, in Iran during the time Azar Nafisi lived there. I now have a better understanding of the restrictions the government put in place and the terrible things people unfairly suffered through.Overall I am very pleased with Reading Lolita in Tehran. I learned about Iran and how their revolution affected the country’s women. I would recommend this book to anyone, primarily to anyone interested in modern history, learning about other cultures, women’s rights, and education.

Reading Lolita in Tehran is structured around the life of the author, an English Literature professor born in Iran, educated in the west and teaching in post-revolutionary Iran. She stands like a maypole at the center of a dance. Dancing around her are the women of her reading group. Further off there are male students, friends and acquaintances, and finally shadowy government functionaries. But these men are not dancers. Some are observers, others play the tune.The strands being woven are thematic ones. As a first guess: Lolita is about the abuse of power. Gatsby, the empty dream. Daisy Miller is about courage and heart. And Pride and Prejudice about using good judgement in social contexts rather than relying on bad rules of engagement. There is no narrative thread, just a group of dancers that weaves back and forth through time.It is tempting, as a westerner, to read this as a polemic against an 'evil regime' But to do so risks making the same mistake as the revolutionaries. Nafisi, I think, is less interested in the politics per se than in how our lives shape and are shaped by politics. The answers are not easy. Some time after a battle waged by the police against a neighbor that took place from her own bedroom balcony, she writes on the blackboard "The highest form of morality is not to feel at home in one's own home," quoting Theodore Adorno. Self satisfaction may not be the greatest moral evil, but it is the progenator of them all. We see this again and again in the acts the regime takes against its citizens. They are all motivated by a mindless and smug notion of self-righeousness.The characters go about their lives, reading James, Austin, Nabokov, and others. They eat cream puffs, drink coffee, defy the regime in their own secret ways, And they have relationships with men. We learn that the revolution seems to have robbed important interpersonal function from its women; by so scrupulously protecting them from the gazes of men it has relegated women to the status of sexual objects. Women retaliate by viewing men the same way. Intimate non-sexual relationships with any member of the opposite sex become impossible. The author highlights this problem in two ways. Firstly, it seems that more of the conversation of this reading circle is about sex than it is about literature. Secondly, by repeatedly seeking advice from a man she calls the magician, she demostrates an ability that seems completely absent from her students.I found the structure of the narrative extremely confusing. I could not keep the characters straight, and I felt the book jumped around in time so much that I frequently gave up trying to figure out the temporal context. If this had not been the first portal through which I was able to glimpse the Iranian Revolution, I may not have had the patience to get through it. I found the literary criticism interesting and insightful. It made me want to read or re-read the pieces of literature cited. The discussion of literature struck me as being a little loosely tied to the narrative. I'm sure that much of this would get pulled together if the book were the subject of a thesis, but I'd rather not work quite that hard; nor, I expect will most readers. Nevertheless, the fact that a book about reading, ideas, literature, and politics requires some reflection in order to be impactful should not be considered a great negative.