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marie_gg's review against another edition
2.0
I initially planned to give this book three stars, but then I realized that I was relieved to be done with it, so I decided to downgrade it to two stars.
I found Reading Lolita in Tehran to be lacking. It had been on my shelves for years, and I finally dove into it, almost to nearly give up on it at my 50-page rule (i.e., if I'm not enjoying a book at 50 pages in, give serious thought about whether I want to continue). However, friends urged me to continue and said it gets better. True--it did improve for awhile.
Given my typical reading preferences (particularly the fact I was an English major and love Jane Austen, and I enjoy reading about women in different countries, especially Asia), this seems like the kind of book I would thoroughly enjoy.
I found the writing to be stand-offish and pompous at times, and pet peeves alert, I didn't like her condescending use of "my girls" to refer to her students. Also, what's with "my magician"? Did I miss an explanation of that term?
I had a hard time keeping all of the students straight, because we really do not get a very vivid picture of any one of them. Nafisi, her husband, and her children also do not get a lot of details...same with her "magician." She used a very broad brush for her characters, both in real life and in the novels she was using to teach.
I found her descriptions of life in Iran to be interesting, although I was curious about the fact that she seemed to want the revolution herself before it happened. I found it hard to understand why her husband didn't seem to get the fact that she was being stifled in Iran, but I think back to living in Japan (which is nowhere near the same situation), and how much more my husband enjoyed our life there than I did. In a society where the status of women and men are so unequal, life is infinitely easier for a man. As much as I look back fondly to my time in Japan, I was ready to leave after 3 years...while Mike was much more regretful to depart.
Some have criticized her book for being anti-Iran, and I wouldn't agree with that. It's definitely anti-totalitarian. I will never forget attending my sister's medical school graduation and meeting her close friend's Iranian parents (who had just flown in from Iran). I was struck by her mother's colorful clothing, vivid makeup, and most of all, vivacious personality. It was nearly impossible for me to imagine her in a chador! Nafisi describes living life in a totalitarian regime as sleeping with a man you abhor. To me, I imagine it as a canary in a coal mine.
I am disappointed that I didn't get more out of this book, and I wonder why so many people I respect really enjoyed it. I must be missing something.
I found Reading Lolita in Tehran to be lacking. It had been on my shelves for years, and I finally dove into it, almost to nearly give up on it at my 50-page rule (i.e., if I'm not enjoying a book at 50 pages in, give serious thought about whether I want to continue). However, friends urged me to continue and said it gets better. True--it did improve for awhile.
Given my typical reading preferences (particularly the fact I was an English major and love Jane Austen, and I enjoy reading about women in different countries, especially Asia), this seems like the kind of book I would thoroughly enjoy.
I found the writing to be stand-offish and pompous at times, and pet peeves alert, I didn't like her condescending use of "my girls" to refer to her students. Also, what's with "my magician"? Did I miss an explanation of that term?
I had a hard time keeping all of the students straight, because we really do not get a very vivid picture of any one of them. Nafisi, her husband, and her children also do not get a lot of details...same with her "magician." She used a very broad brush for her characters, both in real life and in the novels she was using to teach.
I found her descriptions of life in Iran to be interesting, although I was curious about the fact that she seemed to want the revolution herself before it happened. I found it hard to understand why her husband didn't seem to get the fact that she was being stifled in Iran, but I think back to living in Japan (which is nowhere near the same situation), and how much more my husband enjoyed our life there than I did. In a society where the status of women and men are so unequal, life is infinitely easier for a man. As much as I look back fondly to my time in Japan, I was ready to leave after 3 years...while Mike was much more regretful to depart.
Some have criticized her book for being anti-Iran, and I wouldn't agree with that. It's definitely anti-totalitarian. I will never forget attending my sister's medical school graduation and meeting her close friend's Iranian parents (who had just flown in from Iran). I was struck by her mother's colorful clothing, vivid makeup, and most of all, vivacious personality. It was nearly impossible for me to imagine her in a chador! Nafisi describes living life in a totalitarian regime as sleeping with a man you abhor. To me, I imagine it as a canary in a coal mine.
I am disappointed that I didn't get more out of this book, and I wonder why so many people I respect really enjoyed it. I must be missing something.
rachelhelps's review against another edition
2.0
I expected a little more from this book. The prose style was unoriginal, but I suppose in writing memoirs one has a license to just write things as they come and not go back and cut out all the boring parts (also to stop a chapter in the middle of a thought and never complete it). I found that this book was more about the state of women in Iran rather than their interpretations of literature (which is of course what I was interested in). I'm just puzzled about how someone who admires Nabokov could describe suffering so boringly.
mangliu0130's review against another edition
4.0
缺点还是很明显的，还是特别喜欢这本书：参与book club的几个学生并没有很distinguish，很容易混在一起；作者的写作有一点点装；写作顺序有一点跳脱混乱等等。
Nafisi写伊朗女性的生存状态，源源不绝的抗议示威，各种男性人物对女性的压迫、对女性挣扎的忽视，两伊战争，最重要的：对艺术和自由的渴望，真的hit a home run，特别是对于我这个生活在中国大陆的女性来说，每天在媒体看到不下十条厌女新闻，太能relate了。想把这本书推荐给身边所有的女性读者。
看了其他人的评论，还是想给Nafisi辩护一下。最后作者在离开伊朗前跟魔法师聊，魔法师说“你所知道的奥斯汀永远和这个地方、这片土地、这些树木割舍不开。你不会以为这就是你和奥斯汀学者法兰其博士研究的同一个奥斯汀吧？”有的人说她对这些文学作品的解读过于肤浅，但对于我来说，可以看到这些文学作品在如此极端的政治环境下有他们独特的解读，就已经足够了。这是在德黑兰读《洛丽塔》，而不是纳博科夫解读大全。
Nafisi写伊朗女性的生存状态，源源不绝的抗议示威，各种男性人物对女性的压迫、对女性挣扎的忽视，两伊战争，最重要的：对艺术和自由的渴望，真的hit a home run，特别是对于我这个生活在中国大陆的女性来说，每天在媒体看到不下十条厌女新闻，太能relate了。想把这本书推荐给身边所有的女性读者。
看了其他人的评论，还是想给Nafisi辩护一下。最后作者在离开伊朗前跟魔法师聊，魔法师说“你所知道的奥斯汀永远和这个地方、这片土地、这些树木割舍不开。你不会以为这就是你和奥斯汀学者法兰其博士研究的同一个奥斯汀吧？”有的人说她对这些文学作品的解读过于肤浅，但对于我来说，可以看到这些文学作品在如此极端的政治环境下有他们独特的解读，就已经足够了。这是在德黑兰读《洛丽塔》，而不是纳博科夫解读大全。
olliefern's review against another edition
3.0
Azar Nafisi tells the story of her life in Iran before & after the Islamic revolution. She teaches English at the University of Tehran without wearing a veil until she's expelled (though she claims she resigned beforehand). She decides to run an English class in the privacy of her home, every Thursday, for a select group of women, so they can study various novels banned by the Iranian regime. She becomes close to these women, hears their tragic stories, then decides to bugger off to America with her family. The End.
This memoir is part unreliable narrator (which makes the title oh-so-ironic), part intriguing study of a woman's life under strict Islamic law, and part lit criticism on key Western novels (e.g. Lolita, Pride & Prejudice, and Great Gatsby.) It could have done with tighter editing and a more comprehensible chronology; it could have also done with less flights-of-fancy and more objectivity on the part of the author.
A decent introduction to Iran and its regime's nefarious persecution of women.
This memoir is part unreliable narrator (which makes the title oh-so-ironic), part intriguing study of a woman's life under strict Islamic law, and part lit criticism on key Western novels (e.g. Lolita, Pride & Prejudice, and Great Gatsby.) It could have done with tighter editing and a more comprehensible chronology; it could have also done with less flights-of-fancy and more objectivity on the part of the author.
A decent introduction to Iran and its regime's nefarious persecution of women.
erikars's review against another edition
his book is a series of reminisces of Nafisi's life as a professor of literature in Iran. It is a fascinating view into the life of a woman who was unsatisfied with the life she was forced to lead there. Just as important as her life is the life of her students and their reactions to the books she had them read. Nafisi also conveys that the tragedy of the laws, at least as applied to women, is that they tried to erase individual personalities. Reading Lolita in Tehran was a good and, at times, emotionally challenging book.
walkingtragedyy's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
me whenever a book is a love letter to literature <333
me whenever a book is a love letter to literature <333