I'm a dude, and I read this when I was 11 or 12, and I can’t underestimate its impact on me. I hear there has been some criticism (I hope I’m wrong), but the erosion of rights of highly educated women and the lengths they go to discuss literature (and my favorite book, Lolita). It touches on American interference in Iran’s politics, Iranian countering with extremism, and ultimately, the impediments the women face in making any progress toward a future where great literature and the culture that results from it is seemingly impossible. I just found it in the bottom of a box of old books, so that’s what I’m doing today!
by Magicians_Nephew
24 Comments
I love this book so much!
It’s a good example of how a book can open a culture for you and broaden your worldview. And the title is just brilliant.
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it’s a bit boring and humbert humbert is quite stuffy ironically i prefer pale fire
A bit off topic, but I just watched Seed of a Sacred Fig about Tehran and the protests and it was amazing.
Thanks! Now I’ll have to hunt through my bookshelves to find it and reread myself. It really made an impact on me too.
Lolita is the choice for January in the banned book club I’m in, have had Lolita in Tehran on my TBR for a long time. This’ll be the kick in the pants I need to finally give it a read
It does, however, make for extremely confusing reddit post titles.
I had to go through “Reading ‘Lolita’ in Tehran” to “Reading ‘Lolita in Tehran'” to finally parsing the whole thing as the book title.
Love this book, Nafisi is brilliant
An excellent memoir, and it only gets better if one has read the books she talks about.
I loved this book and I remember how her students were scandalized bt the Great Gatsby
I was told Nabokov chose Delores’ age in the book because of The age of Aisha when they “consummated” the marriage.
Is this mentioned in “reading Lolita in Tehran”
I love this book! I just recommended it in another forum. It’s extremely relevant to American politics currently.
It’s such a good book. I need to hunt up my copy and re-read it.
Another book about that era is “The Stationery Shop” which is sort of a historic romance that also deals with the 1953 overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh and the rule of Shah Pahlavi with British and US support.
Wow what a post title! Not what I thought you were saying lol
It’s beautifully written as well.
Such a great work. It can be hard to get into non fiction for me, but I guess as this is a book about fiction…very special. It also helped me understand the true meaning of Nabokov’s book too.
> countering without extremism
Is the most BS excuse, they don’t even bother to think up a better pretext for oppression.
This is the first time a post here has made me find the mentioned book to read. Thank you for sharing.
It was part of my very weird reading jag of expatriates or Persians born abroad re-experiencing Iran. “Lipstick Jihad” also a good one.
I love this book.
I want to read this after reading her *Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times*, which I really liked.
This is an excellent book and I am probably due for a re-read soon. I also enjoyed Persepolis and read it at around the same time.
Recently I read the novel The Lion Women of Tehran and it was beautiful. The changes in Iran, particularly for women, during that time period are fascinating and terrifying and should serve as an important example of how insidiously rights can be taken away.
This book was on the discard rack at my local library. I brought it home, and slowly reading it.