Rating: 
Summary: The Truth Shall Set You Free!
Review: This memoir should be required reading for the people running our country and all censors of books. Azar Nafisi, currently a professor at Johns Hopkins University, recounts her time in Iran during the time of Ayatollah Khomeini, the eight year "Holy War" between Iran and Iraq--"Holy War" has to be the ultimate oxymoron-- until her departure for the U. S. in 1997.Ms. Nafisi, a professor of Western literature, every Thursday taught works of fiction seven young women in her home after having been expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the veil. She concentrates on some of her favorite Western writers: Nakokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and Jane Austin. There are scary facts here. Women who painted their fingernails could get a year in prison. In a divorce proceeding, the husband always got custody of the children. Virgin women in prison were married to prison guards and then executed, the philosophy being that if a virgin were killed, she would go to heaven. Finally, Ms. Nafisi can use only the real names of the deceased since no more harm can come to them. This warm and extremely well-written memoir is ultimately about hope and the transcending power and freedom of literature. This book will make your heart sing. Ms. Nafisi teaches literature because she loves to; that comes across in every page of this book. I would love to audit a class of hers. She convinced this reader to take another look at Henry James, no small feat since I have never read a word by him that wasn't required reading.
Rating:
Summary: Literature vs. Weapons of Mass Deception
Review: This is definitely the best read I've had in a long time. It
integrates literary criticism with historical-political
narrative, bringing each theme to illuminate the other. We learn about literature -- about the books discussed,
about the love, the meaning, the power of fiction, revealed
partly by the role it plays in Iran's Islamic Revolution. In
Chapter Five of "Gatsby," Nafisi mentions that she once
started a semester by asking her students "what they
thought fiction should accomplish, why one should bother
to read fiction at all." These questions are central to the
book, one might say even to her life. We watch the birth of a totalitarian state. At first it is not
clear whether the "leftists," influenced by the leaders of
the Russian Revolution, or the Islamists will take power, or
if they will share power. In the end it is the Islamists,
maybe because of a stategy taught by Khomeini: "Hit
them. Do not complain; do not be a victim; hit them." The
Islamists are the more ruthless of the two. The secular
modernists have no chance, thanks to their lack of interest
(and/or understanding) of power struggle. Literature threatens totalitarian powers by teaching the
complexity of people, their natures, and their motivations.
Before Nafisi is expelled from the university, she sees
students who, dedicated to the revolution, are deeply
offended by the literature they are studying. Usually, they
have no idea of what the book is actually about, so mired
they are in a simple, black-and-white world view. When
one of these students reviles "the Great Gatsby," Nafisi
stages a trial in the classroom, where the accused is the
novel ("the Great Gatsby") itself. This tactic electrifies the
class, and is one of the most exciting parts of the book. In the midst of Islamic revolution in Iran, Nafisi and her
students and friends find themselves wondering how the
soul survives under a totalitarian regime that seeks to
control every little bit of one's personal life. In Chapter
Seven of "Austen," Nafisi's friend "the magician" reminds
her that Jane Austen ignored the Napoleonic Wars that
were then engulfing the world, and created her own
independent world, "the fictional ideal of democracy," as
Nafisi calls it. "Remember all that talk of yours about how
the first lesson in fighting tyranny is to do your own thing
and satisfy your own conscience?" asks the magician. Later, in Chapter Seventeen, Nafisi writes, "Evil in Austen,
as in most great fiction, lies in the inability to 'see' others,
hence to empathize with them....How does the soul
survive? ... through love and imagination." Love and
imagination are the antidote to evil, rooting out evil in
oneself, and protecting oneself from the evil of others. When Islam comes into formal, governmental power in
Iran, it opresses the faithful as well as the secular.
Women who wore the veil out of devotion, as a declaration
of their faith, before the revolution, now find that wearing
the veil no longer means anything. One of Nafisi's devout
Muslim students writes (Austen ch 21): "During the Shah's
time, it was different. I felt I was in the minority and I
had to guard my faith against all odds. Now that my
religion is in power, I feel more helpless than ever before,
and more alienated." She found Islamic rule to be "a
pageant of hypocrisy and shame," and was deeply worried
about losing her faith. Nafisi and her husband Bijan must undergo some
profound self-examination together in deciding and
preparing to leave Iran. "None of us can avoid being
contaminated by the world's evils," says Bijan. The book is divided into four parts -- "Lolita," "Gatsby,"
"James," and "Austen." Some of the commentary on
Nabokov's "Lolita" was a bit too rarefied for me; the other
three sections were more accessible. I want to read at
least some of the literary classics that were highlighted in
the book, and then come back for a second reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Subtle History
Review: Once a history teacher, always a history teacher. I found this book enticing in its sublety. It peeks inside the contemporary history of a Muslim nation. The role of women in Iran is compared with characters from literary classics. We are pulled underneath the Chador, to discover that punishment is meted out for wearing fingernail polish or for a wisp of hair falling out from under a veil. All this in the name of Allah, as if religion has gone amuck. Read it. Be entertained. Become enlightened as to the true meaning of "freedom".
Rating:
Summary: a glimpse of Upsilamba!
Review: Azar Nafisi has written a brilliant, moving, and frightening book. As a professor of English literature at Tehran University, she provides a unique perspective on the Iranian revolution that changed the world. She considers herself an intellectual. She marched against the west and the USA support of the Shah of Iran. She tells of the joy that she and her colleagues felt at his fall. She tells of the changes in everyday life for intellectuals and for women as the Islamists took over the country. She left her job at the university (a job that she loved) because she refused to wear the veil. She tells of the effects of the eight year long Iraq/Iran war on the women of Tehran, the tyranny of the religious leaders who issue their decrees as though they came directly from God. Nafisi's story is one of change, tyranny, fascism, and the failure in the 20th century to defend women when their identity and their humanity are stolen in the name of religion. It is also the story of personal courage, intelligence, commitment, and love. Nafisi lead a book discussion group for a select group of women in her home in Tehran before leaving Iran. The forbidden fruit that they read was Lolita, Pride and Prejudice, Daisy Miller, and the Great Gatsby! They risked so much to do this; they risked imprisonment, beatings, rape, and perhaps execution. She tells her story and some of the stories of her students through these group discussions. She has changed the name of the women that are still alive to protect them. She tells one of her student's stories. While in prison she knew of guards who repeatedly raped a young beautiful girl. They justified this punishment because their heinous acts would deny her access to heaven. In this interpretation of Islam, only virgins could go to heaven and God has no punishment for the rapists. We, in the USA, live such safe, comfortable lives even in the wake of 9/11. Our free public libraries, bookstores, and Amazon.com provide such easy access to Nabokov, Austen, James, and Fitzgerald, and yet so few of us read them. We post public reviews on controversial books on Amazon.com accepting the minimal risk of a negative vote. What do we know of the Iranian revolution that in the name of Islam has made women invisible, that has morality police, and bans these dangerous books? Our respect for religious freedom makes us tenuous in dealing with atrocities committed in God's name! I highly recommend this book. Note to the author: if you are reading this, thank you for you have given us all a glimpse of Upsilamba!
Rating: 
Summary: My Review
Review: Ok. Just plain Ok. Imsure that others will find it enthralling, Im just not one of them. It sort of dragged on a bit for me. It isnt a bad book, just overrated. The idea of the book, is/was one that nterested me but it just spent too much time on things that didnt need that much time. I think this is a book thart maybe English lit majors would love though. ( I prefer math and science) Maybe thats why this wasnt quite my cup of tea.......
Rating:
Summary: Literature: an emancipating force against destructive Islam.
Review: Professor Nafisi is a gifted storyteller. Her language is strong, compelling, descriptive, engaging and she switches roles as the story unfolds. She re-lives the role of professor at Tehran University where registered and unregistered students came to her classes because of their reputation for excellence. Some of her students even returned to those classes after having completed them. How many professors can boast of that! Then Professor Nafisi the woman emerges, an insulted, enraged, persecuted woman who is part of a larger society of women whom Iran's leader, the Imam Khomeini, felt must be protected, covered from head to toe, so that all possible Western influences would be expunged from them. Then she switches to her professorial role and describes the various Western authors who formed the basis of her literature classes. They represented ideas diametrically opposed to the professed ideals of Islam. Freedom of thought is dangerous and a university, including Tehran University where Professor Nafisi taught, must excise from its classrooms all opportunities for learning such ideas of abomination. Azar Nafisi the woman, the teacher, was a fighter; she refused to wear the veil and ultimately left Tehran University, choosing to give up a beloved profession rather than become part of a destructive force to wrench freedom of thought from students. From the perspective of Western society it seems incomprehensible that a government would have the gall to tell women that their eyelashes are too long; fruit is being ingested too suggestively; an offending tiny piece of hair is showing from under the veil; the fabric of the diaphanous robes is too thin; to enact a law that the acceptable age of marriage for a woman is in her adolescence! Yet the chokingly oppressive rule of the Islamic Fundamentalists was able to enforce these offensive dictums! It's no wonder that Professor Nafisi chose to clandestinely meet in her home with some of her former female students to discuss the forbidden: Nabokov, Austen, Fitzgerald, James. When all has been robbed from an individual, there must be a way to hold onto one's soul and for the Professor it was her love of language, thought and freedom of expression. For the young women it was a powerful desire to live and operate outside the veil. Once in her home, the young women would shed their covering to display colorful earrings, tee shirts and jeans. "Reading Lolita in Tehran" was all the timelier because of America's involvement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is imperative that we Americans, who often take liberty too far, recognize that in other parts of the world even one's mind belongs to imperious rulers who claim to be champions of purity and holiness! The one criticism I have of this book is that it's chronology; the skipping around from living room to classroom and various parts of history from the 80's to '97 makes it hard to piece the whole puzzle together. The chronology is disjointed. One final comment, it would be ideal for the reader to have read the works of the authors so valued by Professor Nafisi in order to fully understand and appreciate her analysis of them, the ideas they were professing, and the parallels she was drawing between these ideas and the destructive beliefs being foisted by the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Rating:
Summary: Great content, a bit disjointed
Review: I was really eager to read this book because I had heard such wonderful things about it. While Ms. Nafisi's writing was consistently strong, her imagery vibrant, I did have a bit of a hard time getting through this book. It seemed like the necessary background about certain key scenes was missing and her timeline jumped around a bit. Also, it seemed like her tone would switch back and forth from academic to traditional storytelling prose, and that lost me, too. For these reasons, I never really got enveloped in the story--each time I picked the book up, I felt like I was starting over. That said, she does have a fascinating story to tell that is empowering, especially to women.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING
Review: This is the first book in a long while that I have been recommending to friends, family, and strangers. Deeply personal, insightful, and clever, Azar Nafisi's touching memior leaves you aching for more. I absolutely could not put this book down; it has made my top 5 list of books!
Rating:
Summary: A Tale of Thousands of Nights and Days
Review: This is a beautifully woven tale of a personal and professional journey told through the stories of her students, reading group and her own experiences. Ms. Nafisi's use of the characters and construct of English literature to tell her story inspires me to go back and read anew each of the works in her syllabus. She puts a human face on Iran, often warm, loving and humorous -- more often frightening and unreal -- a country many of us know only through the news media. While the women in her reading group share the same hopes and dreams as women throughout the world, these women take great personal risk each time they gather to share their love for works of fiction. Each developed her own brand of courage throughout.
Rating:
Summary: A must read....
Review: Azar Nafisi was interviewed recently on PBS radio and her "live" voice is as rich and warm as her written voice in READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN. How remarkable that one who was so put upon by the ruthless regime that seized power in Iran around 1980 and continues today could write such a wonderful and compelling story. Ms Nafisi says she thanks the "Revolution" because without it she might not have fully realized how wonderful freedom is. She left Iran in 1997 to return to the US where she had obtained her education. At this time-according to the radio interview and book jacket--she teaches English literature at Johns Hopkins University. Before I read Ms. Nafisi's book, I had a very negative view of Nabokov's 'Lolita' which has been translated into at least two films, one starring James Mason and the other more recent version starring Jeffrey Irons. The latter film version was not distributed to theaters in the US owing to an outcry from the US public about the content which included incest. I have to admit I was against showing of the Irons film in the US, but since I know nothing about the interpretation in the Irons film my thinking could biased. Whatever the case for Irons' film, Ms. Nafisi has exonerated Nabokov as far as I am concerned. Apparently, he was on Lola's side and trying to show the reader how really awful Humbert the stepfather was. Humbert blamed Lola (whom he called Lolita) for her own rape. I may finally read 'Lolita' or I may not, but I have a different perspective. Ms. Nafisi has written a book about Nabokov's novels that I plan to read since I am now convinced I not have given this author a fair hearing. Ms Nafisi's memoir works on several levels. On one level, her book is literary criticism. Through her exchange with her students, she reviews selected works by several classic authors including: Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Jane Austen. On a second level she narrates the tale of a group of female students who continued their studies in English literary criticism at Ms. Nafisi's apartment after she resigned from her teaching position. (She resigned because the intrusion of the 'Revolution' into her affairs and the affairs of the institutions where she worked.) On a third level, Ms Nafisi is reveals how a civilized nation slipped into madness as the result of a 'religious' movement. On the highest level, this book challenges the reader to ask, "What is morality?" I found myself laughing and crying as I read Ms. Nafisi's beautifully written book. She has an important story to tell, and I hope every person (especially women) in America will read this very entertaining and informative work. I sent a copy to my sister who is a high school librarian with the suggestion she encourage seniors to read the book. In my opinion it ranks with Victor Frankel's, 'Man's Search for Meaning.' You can think of it as 'woman's search for meaning'. Nafisi implies there is no difference between Nazis Frankel faced and the "religious" zealots she faced.
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