Reading 'Lolita' in Tehran

Critics

• Through the veil

  Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Story of Love, Books and Revolution by Azar Nafisi 347pp, IB Tauris, £14.95 After teaching literature at three universities in Tehran (and being expelled or resigning in despair from each) Azar Nafisi picked seven of her b ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• Reading Lolita in Tehran By Azar Nafisi

  This poignant memoir from Nafisi, a professor of literature who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, is sure to resonate with readers. A native of Iran, Nafisi left the country to attend university, then returned to become a teacher in Tehran. When s ... (read full critics)

  bookpage published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

10 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  A moving memoir about the authoress Azar and seven female students of hers. Azar was a professor at Tehran university, until resigning due to the dictatorial policies that involved banning great works of Western literature from being studied. She decided to continue to hold a private class with inv ... (continue)

  A moving memoir about the authoress Azar and seven female students of hers. Azar was a professor at Tehran university, until resigning due to the dictatorial policies that involved banning great works of Western literature from being studied. She decided to continue to hold a private class with invited participants.

  For two years Mashid, Nassrin, Manna, Azin, Sanez, Mitra and Yassi met in secret at Azar's home to discuss the novels of Valdimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and Jane Austen amongst others.

  These weekly meetings which at first started out with shy and somewhat intimidated young women gradually changed into more relaxed gatherings as they became friends. It is through getting to know the young women within the pages of this memoir that you will learn of the realities of living in Iran under the strict Islamic rules of the period.

  The women found that they could often empathise with the heroines from the novels they were studying. Comparing the difficulties they had in their lives with those of their own in present day Iran.

  I liked the way this memoir used literary criticism to explain the injustices these women amongst others were suffering, but the style might not appeal to everyone.

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  Lindyloumac said on Apr 3, 2010 | 2 feedbacks

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Interesting

  I found this an interesting read, but it didn't really grab me until much later on. It's a great insight into life during and after the cultural revolution in Iran

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  eamonireland said on May 16, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 

  I love reading about classics, and I love reading memoirs and biographies, but I didn't really like the combination of the two in this book.
  I found the constant interrupting of the story in order to go into a detailed literary analysis quite disturbing. I wanted to read about the group and how is ... (continue)

  I love reading about classics, and I love reading memoirs and biographies, but I didn't really like the combination of the two in this book.
  I found the constant interrupting of the story in order to go into a detailed literary analysis quite disturbing. I wanted to read about the group and how is life for women in Tehran more than Nafisi's ruminations on her beloved Nabokov.
  Azar Nafisi seems a passionate teacher and a deep person, but for me definitely not a good narrative writer.

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  momiji1020 said on Oct 26, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  Every time I finish reading a book there is always a question that opens up: what should I read next? After closing Nafisi’s enchanting readings of Nabokov, James, Austen and Fitzgerald that question is even more complicated to answer, simply because now I'd like to read or re-read most of the novel ... (continue)

  Every time I finish reading a book there is always a question that opens up: what should I read next? After closing Nafisi’s enchanting readings of Nabokov, James, Austen and Fitzgerald that question is even more complicated to answer, simply because now I'd like to read or re-read most of the novels she analyses. I did not enjoy Lolita the first time I tried to read it (I never finished it) because it had made me extremely uncomfortable. Nafisi’s reading of it has made me want to try again.

  This is one of the amazing things about Nafisi’s account of her life in Teheran during the Islamic revolution: that in presenting her life under the islamic regime she also offers quite unusual interpretations of authors that I know quite well. I do not always agree with her, especially when it comes to Austen, but this doesn’t really matters. What does matter is that she shows the power of imagination, literature and interpretation so beautifully.

  It is quite clear that I loved the literary parts in the book. I also loved her way of teaching and, as a lecturer myself, I have taken quite a few ideas from her own methodology. I have also appreciated the way she painted women's invisibility in Iran. Her anger seems at times subdued and understated, but to me that’s the strength of her writing. She shows very subtly but effectively how the new regime and laws affected every little aspect of women’s life, making them silent and invisible; she also shows that there are different ways in which one can resist oppression.

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  Mo Ni Ca said on Dec 20, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 

  Towards the end of this rather too long book, Nafisi says something like "I am an academic: when I write fiction I end by pontificating". No judgement could be more fitting for this novel (?). The theme is compelling, there is a lot of passion in her words, but unfortunately her way of dealing with ... (continue)

  Towards the end of this rather too long book, Nafisi says something like "I am an academic: when I write fiction I end by pontificating". No judgement could be more fitting for this novel (?). The theme is compelling, there is a lot of passion in her words, but unfortunately her way of dealing with politics, social life, but also emotions, feelings and psychologies is way too much literary (in the academic sense of the word).
  University and university teaching always loom in the background - and very often occupy the forefront. Trying to imagine the author of this book, I couldn't help remembering Verlaine: "Et tout le reste est littérature". For Nafisi there is no "rest": all is literature.

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  rayuela said on Sep 4, 2009 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• 

  A group of women meet in their teacher's home to discuss books that are disapproved of in Iran.

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  Missmath144 said on Aug 31, 2009 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

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• English Books
• Paperback 368 Pages
• Edition: New Ed
• ISBN-10: 0007178484
• ISBN-13: 9780007178483
• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Pub date: Feb 02, 2004
• Dimensions: 1226 mm x 839 mm x 129 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette and Others
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Livros em Português, Libri Italiani, Slovenske knjige

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