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The Blood of Flowers: A Novel

by Anita Amirrezvani

ISBN13: 9780316065764
ISBN10: 0316065765
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In 17th-century Persia, a 14-year-old woman believes she will be married within the year. But when her beloved father dies, she and her mother find themselves alone and without a dowry. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to sell the brilliant turquoise rug the young woman has woven to pay for their journey to Isfahan, where they will work as servants for her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the legendary Shah Abbas the Great.

Despite her lowly station, the young woman blossoms as a brilliant designer of carpets, a rarity in a craft dominated by men. But while her talent flourishes, her prospects for a happy marriage grow dim. Forced into a secret marriage to a wealthy man, the young woman finds herself faced with a daunting decision: forsake her own dignity, or risk everything she has in an effort to create a new life.

Review:

"In Iranian-American Amirrezvani's lushly orchestrated debut, a comet signals misfortune to the remote 17th-century Persian village where the nameless narrator lives modestly but happily with her parents, both of whom expect to see the 14-year-old married within the year. Her fascination with rug making is a pastime they indulge only for the interim, but her father's untimely death prompts the girl to travel with her mother to the city of Isfahan, where the two live as servants in the opulent home of an uncle — a wealthy rug maker to the Shah. The only marriage proposal now in the offing is a three-month renewable contract with the son of a horse trader. Teetering on poverty and shame, the girl weaves fantasies for her temporary husband's pleasure and exchanges tales with her beleaguered mother until, having mastered the art of making and selling carpets under her uncle's tutelage, she undertakes to free her mother and herself. With journalistic clarity, Amirrezvani describes how to make a carpet knot by knot, and then sell it negotiation by negotiation, guiding readers through workshops and bazaars. Sumptuous imagery and a modern sensibility (despite a preponderance of flowery language and schematic female bonding and male bullying) make this a winning debut. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Anita Amirrezvani's first novel is about the costs and consolations of beauty, and is itself so picturesque that it often seems a striking variation on its own theme. Set in 17th-century Persia, the book imagines the life of a talented young female carpetmaker during a golden age of artisanship.

In the 1620s, the Persian capital of Isfahan had a larger population than London or Paris.... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Of the period's global cities only Constantinople had more residents, inspiring the proverb that Isfahan was 'half the world.' Its design was exuberantly redeveloped by Shah Abbas the Great, a firm-handed monarch with a passion for urban planning and the decorative arts, who collected the finest architects, calligraphers, engineers, tilemakers and filigree artists to construct its marvels. These included lavishly ornamented mosques, broad avenues, bridges, magnificent gardens and the enormous public square known as the 'Image of the World,' many of whose features, including some of the goal posts from its polo grounds, can still be seen today.

Amirrezvani follows the fortunes of an impoverished woman and her daughter who have journeyed to Isfahan from a remote mountain village after the untimely death of her husband. They are taken in by a charitable relative, a renowned carpet designer in the shah's court. The 15-year-old daughter, who narrates the story, has shown a raw talent for knotting carpets since early childhood and is inspired by the grand specimens in her uncle's workshop. She remains unnamed throughout the book, as the author explains in an afterword, 'in tribute to the anonymous artisans of Iran.' But there is nothing anonymous about this girl's voice. Amirrezvani, who was born in Tehran and raised in the United States, infuses her heroine with lilting eloquence as she confides her bedazzled impressions of the fabled city.

These include scenes of poverty side by side with luxury. 'I stared at rich women with silk chadors strolling slowly over the bridge in their wooden-heeled shoes, which raised them above the ground,' the young narrator observes, 'while poor women shuffled along in dirty cotton rags wrapped around their feet.' A destitute lodger in her wealthy uncle's manor, she bestrides this double world, working with her mother as an unpaid servant and sharing a tiny room near the latrine.

In some ways her lowly status confers a degree of freedom. Covered from head to toe in a heavy white chador and picheh (hood), she is permitted to explore Isfahan and even to befriend the daughter of a prominent neighboring family. Most important, after her uncle notices her interest in rugmaking, he begins to teach her about design and allows her to practice knotting her own carpets when her long hours of kitchen chores are done. Without these consolations, this girl's life would be one of nearly total disenfranchisement. Lacking a dowry, she can't hope for financial security through a respectable marriage. At the urging of her uncle's opportunistic wife, she reluctantly agrees to enter into a sigheh, or temporary contractual union, with the son of a prosperous horse trader, who buys her sexual services for a modest fee in renewable three-month installments. The contract cedes almost all power to the man, who remains free to marry another, more permanent, wife, leaving the temporary bride burdened with the shame of a legally acceptable but socially unsavory arrangement.

For all the disparities of privilege here — between men and women, rich and poor — Amirrezvani's book dwells less on the restrictions of gender or class than on the liberating power of art. 'Our response to cruelty, suffering, and sorrow is to remind the world of the face of beauty,' the girl's uncle advises during a lesson on carpet design. There are many lessons here detailing precisely how Persian carpets are made: Rarely woven, they are created by thousands (or sometimes millions) of tiny individual knots of silk or wool. The inspiration for their intricate, multi-layered designs comes most often from the natural world — gardens in particular — and has a strong religious dimension: No human figures are permitted, in accordance with the laws of the Koran.

Because the carpets are almost never signed, their creators remain mostly unknown. The narrator recounts stories of women and children who spend years making knots until their limbs are twisted and their eyes worn out. 'All our labors were in service of beauty,' she muses, 'but sometimes it seemed as if every thread in a carpet had been dipped in the blood of flowers.' Is this art worth such sacrifice? Interestingly, the author, who is a former dance critic, argues most effectively for art's sake not through plot or character but through a series of artful tableaux: women congregating in a public bath; merchants haggling in the city's great bazaar; teeming slums and serene pleasure palaces; 'turquoise and lemon domes basking in the morning light.' Enduring and dynamic, these living pictures turn a conventional historical novel into a more rarefied object, like a fine old carpet." Reviewed by Donna Rifkind, who often reviews fiction for The Washington Post Book World, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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Review:

"A lavishly detailed debut, in which some of the simple values of a folktale are woven together with richer (and more modern) women-centered life lessons." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"[A] sumptuous tale of female fortitude and ingenuity....Interwoven with traditional Iranian folktales, as well as fascinating details of the art of the Persian rug, this shimmering fable also owes a significant debt to 1,001 Arabian Nights." Booklist

Review:

"While some of the characters aren't as developed as a reader might desire...and the story doesn't always feel that it takes place 400 years ago, the main character is as complex and interesting as the patterns she weaves. Recommended." Library Journal

Review:

"Like Sheherazade, the heroine's mother is a master storyteller, telling tales within this tale that Amirrezvani tells so magically. Readers will not be able to put this book down, from the once-upon-a-time beginning to the well-crafted end." School Library Journal

Review:

"Amirrezvani weaves an intricate, sumptuous tale of fortitude and ingenuity." Chicago Sun-Times

Review:

"[A] stunning debut. One can't help but want to return to the charming main narrator and the entrancing tale of her quest for independence and self-reliance." San Francisco Chronicle

Synopsis:

A dazzling debut novel about a young woman in 17th-century Persia whose gift as a rug designer transforms her life.

Synopsis:

a wealthy man, the young woman finds herself faced with a daunting decision: forsake her own dignity, or risk everything she has in an effort to create a new life.

Anita Amirrezvani has written a sensuous and transporting first novel filled with the colors, tastes and fragrances of life in seventeenth-century Isfahan...Amirrezvani clearly knows and loves the ways of old Iran, and brings them to life with the cadences of a skilled story-spinner. — Geraldine Brooks, author of March

An engrossing, enthralling tale of a girl's quest for self-determination in the fascinating other world that was seventeenth-century Iran. — Emma Donoghue, author of Touchy Subjects and Life Mask

About the Author

Anita Amirrezvani was born in Tehran, Iran, and raised in San Francisco.

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: etankard, April 12, 2008 (view all comments by etankard)
The Blood of Flowers is a metaphor for the ages--a timeless story told creatively in the manner of Tales of the Arabian Nights. Set in 17th-century Persia, the book is interspersed with legends even more ancient. The main character is an artistically gifted young woman who weaves rugs, trapped by the fate of her gender in the strictures of both her country and her era. The author weaves the plot as tightly and exotically as her protagonist weaves rugs, both tying all their knots together. Sections of pure poetry describe conditions that exist even today. Is it possible for artisans around the globe to cry out against evil through their works? When we take for granted objects of beauty created by cheap labor in Third World countries, we fail to recognize that such works of art are, indeed, dipped in the blood of flowers that dye the wool. The author extends the concept to blood relatives, exploring the ties that bind. Can strangers live as a closer family unit than actual relatives? The novel delves into strong themes and enduring literary threads such as the empowerment of women, the role of money between the haves and the have-nots, and the legacy of artisans. Anita Amirrezvani has written a profound statement of life in another century that resonates loudly in the present. She has created the reverse of literary journalism--writing journalistic literature instead, using ancient stories to cast light on lives in a long-ago century but in such a way as to comment on events taking place in the world now. And her protest is constructed in such a sleight-of-hand manner as to be almost imperceptible. What an elegant book!
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: nassefi, July 2, 2007 (view all comments by nassefi)
As an Iranian woman and new novelist (book entitled Aria), I try to read all the fiction and memoir published by Iranian-Americans. Anita Amirrezvani's beautiful novel is my new favorite in this genre. The Blood of Flowers, set in 17th Century Isfahan under rule by one of the greatest monarchs of Iran, details the lives of women from a Persian woman's perspective, a refreshing contrast from the limited view by Orientalist painters and expatriate adventurers. This is a coming of age story of a feisty teenage girl who finds herself in unsavory circumstances following the death of her father. Her passion for weaving carpets becomes the key to her survival and her adult education. With sumptuous prose and historically-accurate sensuality, Amirrezvani's debut novel is sure to become a favorite choice for book clubs, Ethnic Studies/Middle Eastern courses, and even young adult readers. In a time of mounting tension between Iran and the United States, we need books that open doors to Persian culture more than ever before. The Blood of Flowers is storytelling at its very best; it humanizes the people of Iran, brings alive a rich period in history little understood in the West, and unravels the intriguing mysteries of the Persian carpet.
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Product Details

ISBN:: 9780316065764
Author:: Amirrezvani, Anita
Publisher:: Little Brown and Company
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical - General
Subject:: Young women
Subject:: Fairy Tales, Folklore & Mythology
Publication Date:: June 5, 2007
Binding:: Hardcover
Language:: English
Pages:: 377
Dimensions:: 9.49x6.46x1.29 in. 1.38 lbs.

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