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Reading Lolita in Tehran

A Memoir in Books

By Azar Nafisi

(91)

| Hardcover | 9780375504907

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Book Description

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 morContinue

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.

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

7 Reviews

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  • 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 about the Paperback edition | 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 about the Paperback edition | 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 about the Paperback edition | 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 about the Paperback 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 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Nearly had me running out to buy Lolita ! Whatever people make of Dr. Nafisi's motives, or the intended or unintended public relations effects of the book, personally I benefitted from the wildly varying interpretations and reactions to the classics described in it, and that's the beauty of discour ... (continue)

    Nearly had me running out to buy Lolita ! Whatever people make of Dr. Nafisi's motives, or the intended or unintended public relations effects of the book, personally I benefitted from the wildly varying interpretations and reactions to the classics described in it, and that's the beauty of discourse, in whatever country under whatever circumstances.

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    Fay Ng said on Aug 27, 2009 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

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9780375504907 Hardcover $23.95 $20.47 bn.com
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