Rating: 
Summary: Reading Nabokov, James, Austen, Fitzgerald
Review: Azar Nafisi's memoir once again demonstrates the power of ideas in literature in an oppressive regime (think "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seanstress"). Nafisi is a western educated professor of English literature, who returns to Iran from the US and tries for a long time to live within the confines of the Iranian system. She is persuaded to teach at university and seems to have friends in high places who protect her even as her class explores ideas that aren't orthodox by the standards of the religious government. One senses she grew up in an influential and privileged family, but she doesn't provide much detail on her past. She does tell us of her days as a student activist, though, which she now sees as naively agitating for change without considering what would replace the Shah's government.
Finding the environment too difficult, Nafisi finally stops teaching and forms a private class of favorite students, who meet in her home weekly to discuss what she used to teach publicly. The class quickly becomes much more than that, as the personal and political color all they discuss. The group finds parallels (some rather unlikely I thought) between famous heroines--Daisy Miller, Elizabeth Bennett, Lolita--and their own struggles. Nafisi uses "Gatsby" as a window on American culture, the love of money, the seductive and destructive nature of the "American Dream." We see the divisions in the group itself, as one member wants to work within the system for her country and another dangerously flaunts traditional ways. The details of dress and behavior are fascinating--under their robes, these women wear jeans and T-shirts, Nike's and big earrings; letting a strand of hair escape from the veil becomes a political statement.
Interspersed throughout is a lot of heavy literary criticism--it made me want ot read some of these classics again, but at the same time I was a bit lost during discussions of books I missed in college.
Nafisi doesn't delve into her religious background and one senses she had a secular upbringing, but she sees the religious government as a tragedy for Islam. Just as Christianity has in the past been hijacked by those seeking political power, an excuse for war, or to cover up wrongdoing, so too is Islam being hijacked by men with a political agenda. This is a worthwhile and very timely book for those seeking a more sophisticated understanding of the Islamic world.
Rating: 
Summary: Best literature review I've ever read
Review: This book is an interesting look into the life of women and academics in Iran during their revolution. Nafisi uses an interesting mix of national news and anecdotes from her own and her students' lives, demonstrating how they all intertwine. It's also quite fascinating to read about all this from the point of view of books the author has taught. I had only read about half of the literature she discussed, and having that previous experience certainly enhanced the book for me, but I also think the book is readable without having read Lolita and James and The Great Gatsby, etc. Very enjoyable
Rating:
Summary: For Bookworms and Political Savants
Review: Azar Nafisi demonstrates in this book that she is a woman of great intellect, writing ability, compassion, passion for her country and her religion. Above all, she has great passion for great literature and what it can teach us about life (though not as a blueprint). She also has great passion against the things that get in the way of all this. So when she returned to her native Iran after thirteen years spent getting her education in America, she was both coming home, and going into exile, because the forces of tyranny were about to take over Iran.Teaching English Literature at the University of Tehran was the epitome of what she had earned her PhD for, and when she started, things were "liberal" enough that life within the university was possible, though some individuals and rules made it difficult. She was hopeful herself that the 1979 Revolution would improve life for ordinary Iranians, and she joined demonstrations herself for a time. Then things began to get out of hand, and when she was ordered to wear the veil in class, she resigned. Life got more difficult when the Iraqis began the 1980-1989 war. She later taught at two other universities in Tehran. Later, she collected seven women students from among these classes, to put together her secret dream class to study western literature. Her descriptions of the classroom, the way the male students took over, the "trial" of "The Great Gatsby", her analyses of the books, were wonderfully descriptive. I loved her weaving into those descriptions the discussions she later had with her "girls" about the books. These caused the only problem I had with the book, however, as sorting out the chronology was sometimes difficult. After a while, I gave up and just went with the flow, because the flow was so wonderful. One reason I loved the book was that all the books she discussed at length were familiar to me to some degree--I was an English major 35 years ago. I am in the middle of rereading "Lolita" for my book club. Her "take" on this and all the books is so different from anything I've ever thought of or read. Of course that comes from their entirely different setting, even though she stresses the universality of great literature. So these analytical parts were for me both eyeopening and heartbreaking. I also appreciated the book for all the information it gave on the war between Iran and Iraq, which never made any sense to me. Not that it made any political sense to her--Saddam just started it one day. But she was able to make sense for me of the political divisions within Iran, and why factions appeared which were pro-American and anti-American. It also helped me understand more fully the difference between conservative Muslims like Mashid who weren't interested in politics at all and the fundamentalist Islamists like those who tried to take over her classes and could not handle ambiguity at all. And they were the educated ones. Then there were the illiterate ones, who were called students, but were rounded up to storm the US embassy. So the book helped me understand the deep importance of the Muslim faith, and how for a small minority, that gets out of hand, with terrible repurcussions for individual countries and other countries they deal with. If the American government had a better sense of the complexity of all this, we'd all be better off. That's probably not among the reasons Nafisi wrote the book, but it's one of the things I got out of it. I was disappointed not to find more books by her. Is the Nabokov book available in English? I know she published it in Iran. I await whatever else she writes.
Rating:
Summary: The redemptive power of books
Review: A wonderful reading experience that illuminates the redemptive and subversive power of books and reading in a totalitarian society. I was struck by the parallels between the distortions of the Soviet system and that of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In each, it was-is absolutely necessary to control what people read as a way of controlling what they think. Nafisi's memoir gives us reason to believe that while governments can coerce people's outward behavior, it is increasingly and refreshingly difficult to prevent them from reading and thinking freely ... and drawing the obvious conclusions about the mendacity and hypocrisy of the "party line."
Rating:
Summary: imprisoning lolita
Review: A well-written book with a fascinating way to weave books and people together. But in narrowly interpreting a complicated literary work like ¡§Lolita¡¨ as nothing more than a man¡¦s confiscation of a girl¡¦s life to fulfill his lost dream or ignoring the darkness of ¡§Washington Square¡¨ by unduly praising Catherine Sloper¡¦s courage, Nafisi¡¦s readings demonstrated a hidden casualty brought about by an authoritarian government -- in desperately defying the oppression, a liberal-minded literary scholar of impeccable literary taste would voluntarily and obliviously reduce the rich literary works to fit the simple-minded framework of ¡§autonomy vs. control¡¨or¡§oppressor vs. oppressed¡¨, and in protesting the narrow-minded rejection of Western literary works by the Fundamentalists purely on the ground of morality, Nafisi, in her dissident mode of reading, ironically has also narrow-mindedly ¡§confiscated¡¨ the rich multiplicity of the literary works in question.
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.......
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