Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books | 
| Author: Azar Nafisi
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  362 reviews
Sales Rank: 55575
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 081297106X
Dewey Decimal Number: 820.9
EAN: 9780812971064
ASIN: 081297106X
Publication Date: December 30, 2003
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Amazon.com Review
An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity," she writes. Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds. The great works encouraged them to strike out against authoritarianism and repression in their own ways, both large and small: "There, in that living room, we rediscovered that we were also living, breathing human beings; and no matter how repressive the state became, no matter how intimidated and frightened we were, like Lolita we tried to escape and to create our own little pockets of freedom," she writes. In short, the art helped them to survive. --Shawn Carkonen
Product Description
Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 357 more reviews...
 Insight and frustration November 29, 2008
Nafisi's memoir is a mixed bag. Her device--using the great novels she has studied and taught throughout her career as pegs for a memoir about modern Iran--is effective, but her professorship constantly gets in the way. She is bent on forcing her students and readers to see novels her way and to see her world through her lens. That said, she also offers a great deal of insight on what it means to live under the Islamic dictatorship that is post-revolutionary Iran, and many of her quotes from literature are telling and profound.
Because of her privileged position and above-the-fray stance, she never experienced the worst of the repression, though she clearly suffered from the constant control imposed most cruelly on women. Still, while wearing a veil, not exposing hair, not wearing make-up, not consorting with non-relative men ... is harsh, neither is it torture. Those tortured and murdered and threatened with both are people she knows as students and intellectuals who took many more chances than the author. They were the ones who stood up more forcefully to the regime. That makes this more an in depth news summary than a personal tragedy.
As for her expressed literary tastes, they are fine and important enough within the context of her university life, but ultimately pretty predictable and dull. I was much more excited about this book half way through than when I finally slogged through to the end, having invested too much time to lay it aside in favor of other worthies in the stack beside the bed.
If you share the author's love of James, Nabokov, Austen, et. al., you will doubtless find this far more worthwhile than did this reviewer.
 A tribute to the human spirit October 25, 2008
This memoir is a marvelous piece of writing. Azar Nafisi's recollections of the early days of the Islamic Revolution are absolutely compelling but, when she adds the thoughts provoked by various great novels and the interplay between her "girls", one is left spellbound. I was won over by the very first page and I soon found myself highlighting the author's wonderful use of the English language (so that many pages are almost all bright yellow now). The "girls" reminded me so much of the young women with whom I worked in Tehran many years ago. Their tenacity and humor in the face of unbelievable pressures never ceases to surprise and their fearless femininity leaves any man reading this book in a state of sheer admiration. The description of Sanaz's dance awoke so many priceless memories that it brought tears to my eyes - but then so did a lot of other episodes in the book. Perhaps because there is so much sadness implicit in much of its subject matter, this book is an extraordinary tribute to the human spirit and, most particularly, the incomparable qualities of Iran's women.
 Memorable October 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
The title of this memoir/literary criticism hybrid delivers exactly what it promises. A teacher dares to challenge an unimaginably oppressive Muslin regime, by reading "Western" classical fiction at a time when all thing "Western" was either illegal or openly despised. As Azar Nafisi strives to educate her students, we get a unique perspective on some of our beloved novels. How do you teach Lolita about the disturbing rape and forced captivity of a 12 year old, when the legal age for marriage in Iran is nine? How do you approach Gatsby when adultery is a crime, western excess is shunned and of all things you have to be worried about your veil slipping off when your gestures become too animated?
Nafisi handles all this in stride. Finding courage in her favorite heroines, and instilling passion in her students as all great teachers become accustomed.
The literary criticism, moments and theories alone are enough to make the book a worthwhile read for fellow lit junkies. The book is full of relatable moments as the students grapple with the literature and characters. A standout scene involves a stringent Islamic Revolutionary using an EE Cummings poem to woo his unrequited lady love. This setting is Tehran however so not all scenes are so light, there are doses of executions, rape, and shameless brutality, but Nafisi masterfully balances the tone; keeping the reader enthralled through several genres of storytelling.
You'll want to read this one as your favorite authors and novels inspire so many different women to pursue their own dreams even if at tremendous costs. In a word memorable.
cinsandiego October 2, 2008
I loved this book, although I started it three times (over a period of two years) before becoming thoroughly engaged. After that, I looked forward to getting back to it every day and made sure to set aside a time and place to enjoy it, without interruption, as it took my full focus. I read the book first, then listened to it on cd's (narrated beautifully by Lisette Lecat). After sixty years of loving books, this one ranks among my favorites and I will enjoy rereading it many times.
Pleasantly surprised September 7, 2008
I picked up this book out of curiosity and wasn't sure what to expect. It reads easily, but there is actually quite a bit going on in these pages. I was pleasantly surprised to get so much out of one book. Nafisi effortlessly weaves her personal history and that of her girls into the larger story of the revolution in Iran. Not knowing much at all about the Middle East, it was a huge help to have the larger cultural/historical landscape explained. As if these threads were not enough, Nafisi decides to weave in one more - the relationship between literature, the Iranian revolution, and the personal lives of the girls. Best of all, I got the itch to revisit many of the classics mentioned in this book.
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