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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Azar Nafisi

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books Cover

Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

"There are certain books by our most talented essayists — I'm thinking in particular of Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion, and Dakota, by Kathleen Norris — that, though not necessarily better than their other works, 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 (read the entire Atlantic review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

We all have dreams — things we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisi?s dream and of the nightmare that made it come true.

For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were reading — Pride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolita — their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran.

Nafisi?s account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisi?s class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that preached falsehoods of "the Great Satan," she decided to let him put Gatsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense.

Azar Nafisi?s luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women?s lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice.

Review:

"[W]ithout once sinking into sentimentality or making overly large claims for the relative might of the pen over the sword, Nafisi celebrates the power of literature to nourish free thought in climes inhospitable to it." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"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

Review:

"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, National Public Radio, author of Daughter of the Queen of Sheba

Review:

"Stunning...a literary life raft on Iran's fundamentalist sea...All readers should read it." Margaret Atwood

Review:

“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. For many years, she eschewed the easier path of exile, and became one of the brave band of intellectuals and artists who stayed on, stubbornly struggling to save the cultured soul of her remarkable country.” Geraldine Brooks

Synopsis:

Reading Lolita in Tehran is the astonishing true story of young women who met in secret each week to read and talk about forbidden Western classics — and their lives and loves — in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Synopsis:

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. "Reading Lolita in Tehran" is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.
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About the Author

Azar Nafisi is a professor at Johns Hopkins University. She won a fellowship from Oxford and taught English literature at the University of Tehran, the Free Islamic University and Allameh Tabatabai University in Iran. She was expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the veil and left Iran for America in 1997. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New Republic, and is the author of Anti-Terra: A Critical Study of Vladimir Nabokov’s Novels. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
Jeane, April 2, 2008 (view all comments by Jeane)
This doesn't really read like a memoir, and was not what I expected. I was picturing an intimate story about the women's lives and interactions with each other, facilitated by their book group. What I got was a bunch of essays on American authors of classic literature, Iranian politics, religion and the oppression of women. It jumps around a lot, moving from one subject to the next without much warning and going suddenly from the present back to Nafisi's experiences at the beginning of the Revolution. This can get confusing and detract from the focus of the book. But once I let go of my expectations, I did really enjoy this book.
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slavetowhim, August 24, 2006 (view all comments by slavetowhim)
Well said, reviewer Crochetstory: This book is beyond wonderful. I read it after hearing Azar Nafisi speak (no one wanted her to stop), and was delighted to see that her grace in speaking also carries into her writing. I'm looking forward to reading Reading Lolita in Tehran again.
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crochetstory, August 21, 2006 (view all comments by crochetstory)
This is a wonderful book. I do hope the author, Azar Nafisi, continues to write for years to come. While learning about literary books like Lolita, Pride and Prejudice and Madame Bovary, the reader also learns about Iran through the lives of the ladies who come to Azar Nafisi's home for bookclub sessions. Amazingly, these young women find identity, pleasure and freedom in reading the books of these great writers.

Their outside lives are opened to us too. The daily life these women live without having the right to wear fingernail polish, make open comments in university and thinking of ways and means to leave the country.

All along there is the constant brave spirit of Azar Nafisi. The book is beyond wonderful.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780812971064
Subtitle:
A Memoir in Books
Author:
Nafisi, Azar
Publisher:
Random House Trade
Location:
New York
Subject:
Women
Subject:
American literature
Subject:
Group reading
Subject:
English literature
Subject:
English teachers
Subject:
Regional, Ethnic, Genre, Specific Subject
Subject:
Ethnic Cultures - General
Copyright:
2004
Edition Number:
Trade pbk. ed.
Edition Description:
Rh Trade Pbk
Series Volume:
issue 6
Publication Date:
December 2003
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
356
Dimensions:
8.16x5.12x.84 in. .63 lbs.
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