The author was a specialist for Western literature in the Iran of the Islamic Republic. That was of course a no-no and she lost her university job in 1995. Before finally emigrating to the US (where she is now probably a suspect as a sleeper of some kind), she did a remarkably courageous thing: she continued teaching girls in English language literature at home for two more years. The main message of the book is the story of the lessons and of the fate of the girls in a country that has gone back by milleniums in civic freedoms.
I was reminded of this book, which I read a few years ago, by the discussions after I posted reviews of the novel and the first film Lolita. I realized that there are more interpretations of Lolita, the novel, than was mentioned in the discussion. For the group of women who read the book in Tehran, what was in the forefront was that somebody who has been forced to be with somebody that she didn't want to be with, can rise up and escape.
In a way though, Lolita is not really the main subject of the study group. The book ought to have been called Reading the Great Gatsby in Tehran or reading Jane Austen. Both take a lot more space. Obviously the title was chosen by marketing criteria. The title with Lolita sounds more interesting and it has a much better rhythm.
I am as often puzzled by the reactions here in Amazon. Where do all the negative reviews come from? Does the Iran have a fifth column of literate people who can write reviews?

I avoided this book for fear of voyeurism. Abuse of children, or the artful justification of it in even an attenuated form, is not something I want to encourage, and I assumed the point of the title was, ¨How paradoxical to be reading something so naughty with veils over our faces!¨

Fortunately that was wrong. Nafisi seems rather to be using a story about the exploitation of one girl, as a literary doorway into a society in which all girls are treated badly. That was what I was hoping for, in finally picking up the CD of this book (which I listened to while driving through Amish country in Ohio!) -- to learn more about life in Iran from a sensitive critic of the regime.

Overall, the book is good enough. Nafisi's descriptions of her students, and the other characters, are acute. You do come to understand what life is like for women in the most radical Islamic countries -- at least for women educated to think like Westerners.

But at the same time, I didn't always get the feeling of getting inside the thought processes of another culture, here. Nafisi does not always seem to mediate a general view of life for women in Iran, but more of ¨what an American forced to live among Islamic Leninists¨ (see Naipaul) would feel. Her description of Islam is so uniformly negative, one does not much get inside the head of its proponents -- unlike with Naipaul.

My other complaint was that the book dragged at times. The author has descriptive talent, but sometimes lets it get away from her. Sometimes Nafisi gives the readers too much interior dialogue -- read with a rather gloomy seriousness, in the CD version.

All in all, while good, I'd probably prefer a shorter version of this book. Maybe a printed version, which one can skip forward at times, would in this case be preferable.

This is an extremely important book because it gives the women of Iran a voice, and one that has been heard around the world. This book is many things: a discussion of English literature, a memoir, a history of the last 30 years in Iran, and more. It is especially worthwhile for those interested in women's issues, Iran, and literature. Just a word of warning--for those not familiar with the writings of Jane Austen, Nabokov, Henry James, or Fitzgerald--parts of this book may not make much sense. May there be freedom and democracy one day in Iran.

No, my title is not a reference to those reviewers who just wanted the book to end--it is an explanation of how the people of Iran feel in their heart of hearts about their system of government. This is an extremely important book because it gives the women of Iran a voice, and one that has been heard around the world. This book is many things: a discussion of English literature, a memoir, a history of the last 30 years in Iran, and more. It is especially worthwhile for those interested in women's issues, Iran, and literature. Just a word of warning--for those not familiar with the writings of Jane Austen, Nabokov, Henry James, or Fitzgerald--parts of this book may not make much sense. May there be freedom and democracy one day in Iran.

Reading Lolita in Tehran is a journey through a warn torn nation, through the eyes of several woman who struggle with who they are in relation to what's going on around them. Their sanity is preserved through their deep exploration of great works of fiction from Nabokov to Fitzgerald to Henry James to Jane Austen. This is a thoughtful book from an author who seems far more in love with reading than writing.

After reading reviews I decided to give this book a try. Unfortunately I couldn't make it very far. This book was beyond boring and every time I picked it up it would put me to sleep. Maybe if I was able to push through the beginning of the book it would have gotten better but I just couldn't. Which is unusual for me because I try to finish all books that I start reading.
I would definitely not recommend this book to anyone.

This is a great read, all women (and men) should read this and find out what really exists in the mid-east. This is written by a woman that lived there before and after the revolution.

The main "character" of the book is Azar Nafisi. She teaches American literature to young Iranians at the University of Tehran, but when she gets dismissed for refusing to wear a veil, Nafisi decides to teach a select group of students at her house. I read the controversy and love they had towards books they read, which include Jane Austen and Vladimir Nabokov. Reading Lolita in Tehran is filled with Nafisi's explanations of how these books relate to the 20th century lives of her and her students.

The things these women go through are unlike anything I've ever heard of before. I was astounded by the oppression they had such as, always having short nails, being in public with only their brothers or husbands, and not being able to read Western classics since they were taken away from book stores. I was depressed to learn about the lives of these women but it was good to know that they keep persevering. What seemed to keep them going was having weekly readings discussing fiction and becoming engrossed in stories and lives of characters that they knew they could never have. "Works of imagination that did not carry a political message were deemed dangerous." (Nafisi 277) Unfortunately, reading fiction was highly frowned upon in Iran because books that did not have politics in it were censored by the government. Not only did they discuss books, this was mainly a time for them to escape their lives and comfortably sit together and tell stories of the past, present and future. Although I enjoy non-fiction once in awhile, fiction is a great way of stepping out of your own life and becoming involved in someone else's. I don't know how I could live without having a good piece of creative literature and not being afraid of being punished because of it.

Religion for these women play a huge part in their lives, it may even be the only thing they know. "The worst fear you can have is losing your faith. Because then you're not accepted by anyone--not by those who consider themselves secular or by people of your own faith." (Nafisi 327) Being attached to faith as much as these women are made me wonder if they somewhat became dependant on it. After all, religion was all they know and all they did. One of Nafisi's students, Yassi is worried if she ever were to lose it she probably wouldn't be able to sufficiently go on.

Everything about their lives were powered by government and faith. Hardly ever did they get to things, at least publicly, that their heart desires. "She walked freely, hand in hand with Hamid, wearing a T-shirt and jeans. She described the feel of the wind and the sun on her hair and her skin." (Nafisi 326) This is a description of one's student trip to Damascus when she was able to walk on the street freely without being scared of going to jail. Reading this quote made me take for granted the fact that I'm able to walk outside in an outfit I wear because I want to not because I have to. There was so much emotion in one experience that it gave me the impression that she would probably not forget being free.

"Peppering my account with justified and unjustified accusations against the root cause of all our woes: the Islamic Republic of Iran." (Nafisi 278) This quote sums up how these women were simply unhappy with the situation they had in Tehran. Reading this memoir gave me a better understanding of how lucky I am to live in America at a time when there is more women teaching, learning, working then any other time before. I have opportunities of traveling, marrying who I want, and even wearing a t-shirt instead of a veil. All of which these women couldn't freely do because of the Iranian revolution. It was a challenging book because it bounced back and forth between times and places. Also, I didn't have much of understanding of Iran's revolution and unfortunately the classic books, but I'm glad to say that reading "Lolita in Tehran" only makes me anxious to learn more about the two. The author now lives in America and a couple of other girls moved away from Iran to start a new life, but could they really leave it? "I left Iran, but Iran did not leave me." (Nafisi 341)

This book is remarkable, intense and thought provoking. I had to read it slowly to digest every chapter. Very well written.

I wish I could say I loved this book, but I didn't. I read it primarily to find out what life was like as a university professor in Tehran after the Revolution and after I had left the country. What I found out was that I am glad I left! The author does put a very personal face on the repression of women and intellectuals, and for that expose I am grateful.

However, the book lost more and more of its punch the longer and longer it got. I think the book can't figure out what it wants to be...a personal memoire, an expose on repression, or a detailed and lengthy course outline on certain works of literature. The book would have been infinitely better if it had been condensed to 300 pages max and had left out the analyses of works of Joyce and James. I couldn't figure out what they had to do with the central theme, anyway. The contrast and comparison ot Nabokov to life in the Islamic Republic of Iran was right on, but the book just went downhill after that.

listening to this book on CD, i felt as if i were listening to someone who had to write a thesis on the author of Lolita. Sho had to substantiate every thought and fact about this man according to a class she took, and a professor was going to grade her on every fact and footnote. i didn't like it. Please don't come crashing down on me for my response to this book. everytime i thought something very personal was about to be revealed or flushed out, it was cut short. I feel ms. nafisi kept an implacable barrier up which she put in place to keep the novel impersonal, and that barrier was to make it an academid thesis on nabakov, and in a sophomoric way. fine, but that's not what the book was promoted to be, and not what i would have purchased.

While railing against the political correctness of the (undoubtedly horrendous ) regime under which Nafisi taught, , the author runs straight into the arms of another sort of feminist political correctness according to which all the men are theocratic and oppressive monsters, and all the women beautiful, fragile but oppressed creatures.

The insights on English literature are not particularly perceptive. Disappointing.

I found this book to be very difficult to read, and more about the literature than about the lives of the women involved. The overblown prose and flowery language were difficult to decipher, and I fought to stay awake more than once. I had trouble finishing it, and never reached the point where the effort paid off in lessons learned or insights gained.

I challenge those who consider this such a "must read," to read Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran (Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks)by Fatemeh Keshavarz. I am an American who reads everything I can find about Iran, a fascinating country full of rich life-affirming culture and a magnificent history, and this book presents a distorted, inaccurate, reductionist perspective... I threw my copy in the trash where it belongs.

The book wasn't as enlightening or deep as I thought it would be and reads more like a diary, but the straightforward narrative does share a important story and reveals a great deal about the author's country.

As book lovers we are excited by the idea of a bunch of young women getting together secretly to read books they're "not supposed to be" reading. That's probably the most beautiful image we are left with after finishing "Reading Lolita in Tehran."

This terrific book by Azar Nafisi paints a nightmarish Orwellian portrait of modern Iran. During most of the era portrayed, a wrong word or glance threatening the political elite could literally get you killed. For a woman, showing too many strands of hair from under your shawl could get you tortured or killed. It's a revealing story of Iran from an insider's perspective. There's a stark beauty in the paradox of Nafisi teaching great Western literature to sheltered young Islamic women in the midst of a brutal far-right political regime.

I listened to Reading Lolita in Tehran unabridged on audio narrated by Lisette Lecat. Lecat does a terrific job capturing the constant tension of Nafisi's world. Her strong voice and wonderful English accent make her narration compelling and captivating.

My rating of 4 stars reflects a very interesting and engaging narrative (5 stars) that sometimes lacks cohesion (minus 1 star), leaping abruptly across years, moods and events.

"Reading Lolita in Tehran", to me, sounded like the perfect read. "A Memoir in Books". After all, I like reading, and I have an interest in Iran. However, reading it proved to be not only a disappointment, but also made me a bit confused. Why, I find myself wondering, is this book so cheerfully recommended by so many?

I'll admit that writing this review is making me feel a bit guilty. Who am I to judge another's life? Thus the somewhat higher rating. However, I'll look not at the "life" aspects of the book, but of those that drew me in in the first place - the writing.

Nafisi definitely comes off as a college English professor in this book. For some (very few, I suspect), this will be appealing. Lessons are casually mingled in with life events. However, to those who are NOT interesting in a lecture (especially not on books they haven't quite gotten around to reading yet, cough), "Reading Lolita in Tehran" comes off as more of a lecture and lesson than a mere memoir. I found myself skimming entire chapters simply because I just didn't give a hoot about Nafisi's view on "The Great Gatsby" or Henry James.

This was not my only problem with the book. I found that entire conversations were difficult to follow. Little is written in quotes (which makes sense, as I doubt anyone can remember conversations word for word after twenty or so years), but almost all conversations are written in the same paragraph with no indication as to who is speaking. This became incredibly confusing. I had to reread entire sections several times just to figure out what was going on. Not very reader friendly.

From the beginning I was most interested in the cultural parts of the book. I was most interested in the "book club" parts. I was not interested in an English lesson. I thought that there was a desperate, dragging feel to the writing that honestly made me tired as I read it.

The overall story (the life, as is more accurate) is without a doubt interesting. But in small portions. Aspects of this book are excellent. Heck, I wouldn't mind the crazy dialogue if only they were the main part of the book. But with the literary commentary and the occasional boring parts, this book drags on. An edited version needs writing, perhaps? Ah, well.

I guess it gives the reader a small view on Iran, but that, unfortunately, is not the focus. The "memoir in books" part is, also, disappointing, as it is more of a literature lesson (and for those youngsters who have yet to get around to some of those books, a dead spoiler) and less of a memory of how books tie into life.

I don't think I'd recommend this. It may appeal to some readers more than others, but do some serious research before picking this for an afternoon read to see if you'll enjoy it. Hesitate before approaching.

Excellent book, very insightful. I had no idea women had lost so much under the current regime. Don't let Loita scare you off, there is nothing coarse in this book; just the well outlined struggle for freedom as seen in the lives of real people, told with warmth, wit and honesty.

This is, by far, one of the most detailed and honest dissertations on the effects of the oppressive Iranian government towards women I have ever reviewed. The author conveys her observations and thoughts with such brillance and ease, that the reader is brought into the fold completely to feel and observe along with all the characters. Most striking is the attitudes of the fascists towards women and how their role in Iranian society has fluctuated. On a lighter note, the author's descriptions of snowfalls and ice cream are crisp and heart-warming. I have recommended this book to a myriad of my friends, with similar high reviews from them.

I bought this book a year ago and could not get into it. I thought it was my mood then. After reading Diane Johnson's Persian Nights recently, I wanted to acquire an impression of the early days of the Iranian revolution. I ordered three memoirs written by Iranian women and lost myself in them. I first read JOURNEY FROM THE LAND OF NO, I went on to EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME and finally this afternoon I finished PERSIAN GIRLS which I loved. I decided to go back to Reading Lolita, supposedly a masterpiece. I read the first 50 pages. I went to the Epilogue. I tried finding something appealing in different chapters. Nothing touched me. Finally I checked these reviews to see what I was missing. I am relieved. The book is boring and the narrator is a pedant. I have a Ph.D. in Spanish lit and taught for 35 years. I remember an extraordinary class in Chicano Lit where all the students were women ranging in age from 19 to 45. It was an extraordinary sharing experience for me and my students. This book is totally artificial. It demands from the reader to accept page after page of stilted literary criticism, academic gossip and self congratulation. We get no feeling for the events and the people. In conclusion, I will not subject myself to this reading torture.

Reading Lolita is a powerful book about a group of educated women whose world was collapsing around them, as the forces of misogynism closed in on them.
Its flaw lies in the author's inability to empathize with her female characters. She shows no warmth or compassion for them. And the characters themselves are portrayed as improbably weak. The author's smugness can be overwhelming.
I give the book four stars because for all this, the book is written with charm and style and because of its moving expression of desperate hope against impossible odds.
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog at
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I have a feeling that this book is going to be the first book that I cannot bare to read all the way through. I am over half way through, after forcing myself to read it.
Even if it completely redeems itself in the second half, I would not change my rating based on the abysmal ~200 pages I have read so far.

Her writing is disjointed and her thinking is jumbled. Parts of the book are lectures on classic books, others are simply an enumeration of events that have happened in Iran.

I have no idea why Reading Lolita got such a good rating. Perhaps because the idea is good? "An intelligent Iranian women giving insight on life and struggles in Iran" sounds like it would make a fantastic book. Maybe it will make a good book some day. Unfortunately this is not it

I would not recommend this book.

This is a book that must be read on its own terms. Although I found the author to be a bit, well, pompous, there is no doubt that this work depicts the emotions and reality of being a woman in the Islamic Republic.

For me, this was an eye opening read.

I have read a number of books about Iran lately, both fiction and nonfiction. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi is a fascinating and moving story about how the author was affected by the revolution in Iran.

Nafisi was raised in Iran, educated in England and the US, and then returned to Iran to teach American Literature. It wasn't long before the revolution started brewing and drastically changed living conditions for all Iranians--but especially women. When Nafisi lost her university job, she invited eight of her brightest female students to join a book club in her home. For one morning each week, these women were able to escape into the fiction works of Nabokov, Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and others. Most of these works were banned by the Iranian government and all the women took a change in meeting for this purpose.

Reading Lolita also deals with Nafisi's teaching at the university, her family and friends, and living conditions in Iran. But mostly, it is about how books relate to her world. At times, she is simply trying to expose her students to good literature. At others, she draws parallels between these fictional works and the revolution. "What we in Iran had in common with [F. Scott] Fitzgerald was this dream that became our obsession and took over our reality...Was this not similar to our revolution, which had come in the name of our collective past and had wrecked our lives in the name of a dream?" Nafisi also wanted to educate her "girls" that the world had much more to offer them than their homeland. Several years after the revolution, conditions became more lenient, but Nafisi claims that they were "disquieting." "Life had acquired the texture of fiction written by a bad writer who cannot impose order or logic on his characters as they run amok."

Reading Lolita in Tehran has piqued my interest to read some classics that have somehow passed me by. The author even includes a list of suggested reading, as well as questions for discussion. While I enjoyed it immensely, I think this book would be even more enjoyable if reading it with a book club.

As Nafisi says , people tend to take for granted the freedoms they have, and only appreciate them when they have been denied them. This is a book about appreciating the freedom to read , think about, and discuss Literature. It is also a book about how Literature and Life may intermingle with and influence each other. It is also a book about a courageous teacher who shows not only a real love of literature but a genuine concern for the lives of the seven students she gathers in her apartment to teach Literature to in Tehran. She does this under the regime of the Ayatollahs and the action is taken in defiance of the uniformity of mind and culture, the totalitarian spirit they impose upon Iran.
The group reads Austen, Henry James, Scott Fitzgerald, Saul Bellow and most importantly Nabakov's 'Lolita'. They in the course of this symbolically escape as Lolita from her imprisoning Humbert Humbert, the tyrannical controlling Tehran regime.
Nafisi is not only an intelligent and skilled writer. She is also clearly a very warm and considerate human being , and a teacher of the value of freedom.
An inspiring work of art.

If you could see into Dr. Nafisi's living room - you would see seven young women - her most committed students of literature, sitting in on their teacher's study class held in the privacy of her home- It is the time of the Islamic Revolution in Iran - and they are reading forbidden works of literature including Lolita.

Each reader will interpret this book in their own way according to what they capture from the selected works of literature that the author chose to study with her students - and how they compare to their own reality.
There are four sections in the book: Lolita, Gatsby, James, Austen. The author takes you into the heart of these books exposing the parallels of fiction to reality, and in many cases the reality of their own world.

The study class becomes not only an act of defiance but also an escape from reality. Her students, intellectually curious and enthusiastic, drink up every sentence and ponder on its greater implication and meaning. The subtleties of each story are drawn out and unraveled - analyzed and held up as if a reflection of their own predicaments.

"Reading Lolita in Tehran" is one of those books that will take the reader on their own journey into the lives of people half a world away when their country experienced tumultuous and frightening times. Through the recounted reading of selected literature - and the author's memoirs, you the reader are captured in the emotions of those who lived through it and feelings that encompasses each of her students.

Many reviewers here have attached the meaning of the books Nafisi discusses directly with the events that happened in Iran during its revolution - but it much more than that. The book is not just a critique of the Islamic Revolution (mostly under Khomeini ) but rather it is a condemnation of all ideologies, past - present and future, that would preach in black and white absolutes while it adherents abandon any critical thinking thought process.

For just as it is in the fictional works this book passes through, self deception comes in many forms and from many places, and usually from within oneself. But more than anything else it is through these readings that Nafisi manages to capture the nexus of their own dreams and reality.

I'm sorry to have to title my review as such. I wanted to read this book for quite some time. I had expected to read about the struggles of educated Iranian women in an oppressive regime. Instead I was subjected to the pompous ramblings of an English professor. I don't mean this to sound like an insult, but she writes like an English professor - trying to sound educated but not actually relaying a good story.
I hate to not complete a book, but at page 42 I just cut my losses.

For two years, Azar Nafisi, an Iranian professor, gathered a group of young women into her home every Thursday morning to discuss literature. This circular memoir begins by talking about these weekly meetings, then takes the reader into poignant fragments about Nafisi's life in Iran and how things became the way they are. Throughout the book, learning and discussion occurs through novels such as Lolita and Pride and Prejudice.

I found the middle sections a little monotonous. The first and fourth sections were my favorites, because they focused on the girls' group that Professor Nafisi led. I would recommend this book if you love literature and writing and English... or if you want to learn more about the nuances of Islamic life in Iran.

First, I must confess: I didn't finish the book. It contains a lot of disjointed literary criticism in additon to descriptions of the lives of the author and her women students in 1990's Iran. I found it boring.

Everyone I knew said this was an amazing book, so I was a bit disappointed when I first started reading it. Unlike some of the reviewers, I thought the book became significantly more interesting once it was out of the "book club" mode. I have never read "Lolita" and a number of the reference were lost on me. In fact, our book group changed the book (which we've done twice in nearly 10 years) mid-stream and picked something else after a number of people had the same response that I did initially.

FORTUNATELY, I kept reading. I've always wondered how religious zealots come into absolute power (at least in the US, we vote them in). This book illustrated how slowly a change can take place and before you know it, you're covered in a traditional garb. At one point, she discusses how the silly little rule changes, which door to use, etc, didn't bother her because she was too busy worrying about her syllabus, which she felt was more important.

This book was insightful, similar to "The Kite Runner", regarding how most families in the world share the same values, but how easily a vocal minority can come into power when people are too busy to care about politics.

This book also throws aside the western view that Muslim women are meek, mild and without opinion.

I enjoyed it, although I felt like the middle should have been the beginning.

It is a worthy read that stays with you.

I don't know much about Iran, though I know a lot about it's neighboring countries. This was a new adventure for me, and one I am glad I undertook. Azar Nafisi certainly wrote a compelling account of her life in Tehran, under the constant watch of revolutionary Islamists, that are rivalled only by hard-core communists and the Taliban regime. Nafisi allows us to look at Iran in its transformation from a cosmopolitan Asian country to a backwards fundamentalist dictatorship. Nafisi introduces us to the victims of this transformation - from people to culture to history.

I thoroughly enjoyed Nafisi's book for the most part. I gave the book four stars only due to Nafisi's repeated analyses of the works of Nabokov, James and Fitzgerald. Nafisi's first book was about Nabokov's literature, and I found it unnecessary for her to fall back on Lolita and Daisy Miller so heavily. At first, in fact, the novel doesn't seem to be about anything BUT Nabokov, and Iranian women's perception of Nabokov's "Lolita."

Only later is it that Nafisi concentrates on the story that she set out to tell - the story of a few Iranian women thirsting for literature and knowledge being stifled by the new ultra-Islamic regime. As the story unfolds, we see Iranian freedom slowly disappear into a distant memory as seen by progressive college students and professors of tehran's University, at first through clear eyes, later through the heavy veil imposed by the regime on all women.

I find Nafisi's account of her life in this crucial historic stage of Tehran a fascinating memoir, a memoir that touches on so many things: friendship, learning, loss, longing. It is a memoir in which eating a forbidden ham and cheese sandwich becomes a treasured memory, a memory that brings our everyday life into perspective. Above all, I see Nafisi's memoir as the novel of hope and of future shaped by our past, with no regrets. I highly recommend this novel to all aspiring novelists, as well as all who have no knowledge of modern Iran.

This is the worst book I've ever read.

To start with, Azar Nafisi is a terrible writer. This is not in itself a dealbreaker; plenty of writers with zero talent for constructing beautiful sentences have stolidly crafted enjoyable bestsellers out of workmanlike prose that never ventures outside a comfort zone of basic, straightforward presentation of information. Nafisi's mistake is in thinking she has that talent for words, that she is the greatest writer on earth, when in fact she does not and is not.

For about a quarter of the book I honestly believed that the bad writing must be some sort of obscure postmodern statement, the meaning of which I had not yet grasped, so I continued to wade through it in search of an explanation. I wanted to believe it was self-aware. But soon it became apparent that she really was writing in this absurd, all-over-the-map manner in earnest, attempting spectacular feat after spectacular feat of time- and tense-shifting that failed just as spectacularly, not to mention her tendency to leave out quotation marks in dialogue whenever the fancy struck her, all of it rendering the book a rambling, incoherent muck of pretension. She also attempts to pump every chapter full of ornate descriptions of everything and anything regardless of its value to the story. A prudent editor could have cut "Reading Lolita in Tehran" down to half of its endless 343 pages without losing anything of worth. Unfortunately this would have made the book only marginally better, for there are greater problems than just the prose.

She is also ignorant and hypocritical to the extreme. She frequently refers to a cherished metaphor comparing Iran's relationship toward its women with Humbert's relationship toward the title character in "Lolita." Ignoring the ludicrous way she mangles the metaphor to meet various situations like a child using power tools to fit a square peg into a round hole, it brings to light the fundamental failure of this book: it does not even attempt to bring any insight to the situation it presumes to examine.

Just as Iran suppresses its women's individuality for its own ends, she writes, Humbert forces Lolita into being his fantasy, never letting her escape his all-controlling narrative to become her own person. This injustice is one of the main themes of the book. And yet whenever one of the "bad guys" of the book comes into the picture, it becomes apparent who is casting whom in only one light. The soulless Iranian pig-men are never allowed to "say" things, they may only say them "sulkily," or "drone on triumphantly." Nafisi never even attempts to give anyone who disagrees with her vision of utopia more than one dimension, condemning them as blindly as the censor she so loathes, and portraying them as red-faced babies screaming at the angelic, perfect, wonderful, articulate, elegant, soft-spoken and yet still tenacious and ever so brave girls of her class, so that the troubled reader will never have to make a single decision for himself: she has already done all that troublesome judgment for him. She is just another of "Those who see the world in black and white, drunk on the righteousness of their own fictions" (132).

Nabokov gave even Humbert a reason for his evil, if a tenuous one: his lost childhood love Annabelle. What is radical Islam's Annabelle? Don't look for real answers here. Nafisi offers only appetizing answers, ones that go down smoothly to give readers a sense of solidarity against a faceless enemy. Here the opposition is portrayed as nothing more than a parade of inhuman oppressing machines. Such demonizing tactics have been used before, throughout history. I'll leave it to the reader to find specific examples.

Azar Nafisi rightly deplores the injustices of the Iranian empire, but I shudder to think of what would go on in the kind of country run according to the oversimplified, irresponsible, hypocritical thinking she demonstrates here. Compared to that, Iran looks like Disneyland.

I hope she learns how to write and how to think before she attempts another book.

"If I turned towards books, it was because they were the only sanctuary I knew, one I needed in order to survive, to protect some aspect of myself that was now in constant retreat." --AZAR NAFISI

"Reading Lolita in Tehran" is about one woman's journey to find sanctuary and refuge in the midst of burkas, morality police, fundamentalist extremists, and inhumanity. It is about building women's relationships, laugher, crying, and loving-- when it appears love is lost.

Professor, Azar Nafisi, gathers seven of her most promising students at her home for a book club. The women discuss authors such as Nabokaov, Fitzgerald, James, and Austin. They eat chocolate, giggle, and talk about their personal lives. (Just as a book club would in America). They savor words in their mouths and live vicariously through fiction.

"Our world under the Mullah's rule was shaped by the colorless lenses of the blind censor."--AZAR NAFISI

What I found fascinating is the women observe their own lives while reading Lolita, The Great Gatsby, and Pride and Prejudice. In Lolita, they observe the domination and prison Lolita endures by the hands of a man, Hubert Hubert. Thus, their own Islamic Republic in Iran.

Nafisi has woven Alice and Wonderland throughout her book--because fiction is that Wonderland one is able to step into, escape from, and retreat deeply inside in order to survive and endure. Like walking into the light.

The burka is a clear metaphor for the tyranny and oppression Iranian women suffer, but mere cloth cannot cover the emotion these women experience, the pure passion they possess within, their desperate desire to feel the breeze upon their skin.

Some things cannot be taken away or caged up---Like hope, the freedom inside, the soul...and sometimes those things can be found through fiction.

This is one of the very few books that I've picked up again after reading part of it. This book is too intense of a reading to read in just one sitting or in one week. Sometimes, it seems to ramble on without a point and other times, it is so dark and depressing, as if it was always winter and never spring. Yet throughout the entire book, there was a thread of hope underlying the themes of oppression and secrecy.

This is about a book club in Iran during the revolution and in the years after the revolution. But yet, it is more than just about a book club. It is about a group of women who bonded over coffee and ideas and conversation. It is about a group of women who gathered together and talk about books and how it shaped their viewpoints and attitudes towards what is going on in their own country. It is about a woman's life during those years that could have been bleak and dark if there weren't a book club. It is about a woman who taught at the university and saw the attitudes of the students around her changing to reflect the times. It is about a woman who loves her country deeply and intensely and very sorrowful about the changes. It is about a group of women who talked about life under the veil and what it means to them.

Each part of this book are broken up according to some of the classics like Lolita, Gatsby, James, and Austen. The themes relate to those books that they were discussing and Nafisi writes of her teaching job, her writing and how those authors/books influenced her thinking and perceptions of what is going on in Iran. This is a very powerful book that tells of the power of books throughout time.

And it is way more than about a book club. It is definitely not something I expected to read. I am amazed that I picked the book up after laying it down for a month, and finished it in two days. It is very intense and intellectual and very moving. Sometimes, she rambles on and there's that part of me that says, ok, when will you get to the point, then she'll get to the point and I'll forget my aggravation. It is a wonderful book and very well-written. It's perfect for book clubs to read and discuss together. I've read all of those books that she talked about except Lolita and that one will have to be remedied soon.

If you're a serious reader, this book is for you. If you're not a serious reader, you may not enjoy this book for all that it's worth. It's too intense just to skim over ~~ this is a book that you want to read carefully to gleam all of the author's thoughts and memoirs of life in Iran.

8-1-07

Since I started the book I cannot put it down. Nafisi tells her story about being a woman living on a place "stranger than fiction". When our dreams turn into nightmares, what do we do? Do we go with the flow and survive for a greater good or do we die for our convictions? This book has me all over the place! I keep peeling layers after layers, trying to get to the core. Is it about women living on a strict Muslim society? Yes, but this is just the tip of the iceberg! Some people criticize the book for stopping at the time when Iran ruling changed to a less strict Muslim government, when things got better for the daughters of the revolution. Yet, if you read the book, you would understand that stories do not end when they are "supposed" to. Is there really an ending to a book? In fiction they keep living with their readers. In non-fiction books, the stories keep going generation after generation. Authors choose and ending for a reason. What are the dangers of romanticizing the past? It is a human thing. We keep romanticizing the past and we keep failing into the trap. Being born in a Latin American country, I always felt I've been living on the "verge", between past and present, never learning from our mistakes yet listening to the same voice that tells us we should go back to the past. Paradox is written all over this book. Freedom is a paradox. You respect other people's freedom until starts eroding your own. How can freedom and religious rules coexist? Is there a happy medium? Maybe the book hits home because I teach college classes, I am a very independent woman with strong ideas, I come from a country where sometimes (or most of the time) reality is stranger than fiction, and I am too "western" or american for my own "good". The book is filled with references to English literature (where Nafisi get lost and passionate). Only a passionate reader would understand this breaks, the author trying to build a bridge between her life and her books. At the end, books are as powerful as their readers. Nafisi remind us in every line our power as a reader, as citizens. Without us, "they" would not exist.

'Reading Lolita in Tehran' is definitely not a mainstream "chick-lit" book, nor a highly literary work of non-fiction, nor a basic memoir- it's a combination of all three. "Reading Lolita" has many things it's trying to accomplish, and this is where I think it falls short.

I must admit, it took me a few chapters to get into "Reading Lolita". I thought it was going to be a strict memoir, and when she digressed into these elaborate dissertations on (especially Lolita), I found myself getting bored. Now, I'm not one to ever eschew an intellectual conversation or debate on ANYTHING, but I really wanted to hear about the girls and their lives and Azar Nafisi's life in this horrible theocratic regime. I also wanted to know how they managed to get away with reading such blasphemous stuff. When Azar Nafisi talked of these things, I couldn't put the book down, but when she started on her diatribes and nuanced descriptions of "Lolita", Nabokov, Fitzgerald and Austen, I found my mind wandering, wondering, "What am I going to wear tomorrow?" I suppose if I had picked up a book entitled, "The In-Depth Analysis of Vladimir Nabokov and Lolita", I wouldn't have felt that way, but as you know, this isn't that book. As the book progressed, I really did have affection for some of the characters, and I truly felt scared for them and hoped that this book didn't have a horrible ending like all the women getting executed in a soccer field or something. Luckily, we didn't have to deal with that, but I wish Azar Nafisi would write a book JUST talking about the lives and feelings and situations of young women in Iran, so that people here in the good 'ole US of A can really figure out what's going on over there. Unfortunately, I believe that would be hard for Nafisi to do. She is definitely an intellectual, and I think her interest lies in absolutely dissecting fiction in a way that no one else is interested in, and I believe she is a bit self-promoting.

Finally, I do believe this book is worth reading. I learned some things about what was going on when the Ayatollah was in power- things I didn't realize (as I was in high school when that was going on and wasn't paying much attention to things like that), and I did find myself sort of missing "the girls" after I read the last page and closed the book. If I could have, I would have made the rating 3-1/2 stars just for a little added oomph to her rating.

'Reading Lolita in Tehran' is definitely not a mainstream "chick-lit" book, nor a highly literary Pulitzer Prize winner and not even a basic memoir- it's a combination of all three. "Reading Lolita" has many things it's trying to accomplish, and this is where I think it falls short.

I must admit, it took me a few chapters to get into "Reading Lolita". I thought it was going to be a strict memoir, and when she digressed into these elaborate dissertations on (especially Lolita), I found myself getting bored. Now, I'm not one to ever eschew an intellectual conversation or debate on ANYTHING, but I really wanted to hear about the girls and their lives and Azar Nafisi's life in this horrible theocratic regime. I also wanted to know how they managed to get away with reading such blasphemous stuff. When Azar Nafisi talked of these things, I couldn't put the book down, but when she started on her diatribes and nuanced descriptions of "Lolita", Nabokov, Fitzgerald and Austen, I found my mind wandering, wondering, "What am I going to wear tomorrow?" I suppose if I had picked up a book entitled, "The In-Depth Analysis of Vladimir Nabokov and Lolita", I wouldn't have felt that way, but as you know, this isn't that book. As the book progressed, I really did have affection for some of the characters, and I truly felt scared for them and hoped that this book didn't have a horrible ending like all the women getting executed in a soccer field or something. Luckily, we didn't have to deal with that, but I wish Azar Nafisi would write a book JUST talking about the lives and feelings and situations of young women in Iran, so that people here in the good 'ole US of A can really figure out what's going on over there. Unfortunately, I believe that would be hard for Nafisi to do. She is definitely an intellectual, and I think her interest lies in absolutely dissecting fiction in a way that no one else is interested in, and I believe she is a bit self-promoting.

Finally, I do believe this book is worth reading. I learned some things about what was going on when the Ayatollah was in power- things I didn't realize (as I was in high school when that was going on and wasn't paying much attention to things like that), and I did find myself sort of missing "the girls" after I read the last page and closed the book. If I could have, I would have made the rating 3-1/2 stars just for a little added oomph to her rating.

_Reading Lolita in Tehran_ is part memoir, part personal narrative and part literature course. Nafisi, a literature professor by profession, not only gives readers insight into some of the seminal works of literature, but also honestly details the struggles of herself and her students as a women in post-revolutionary Iran.

Nafisi writes, "the best fiction always forces (you) to question what you take for granted." Teaching a small group of women western literature, we are privlidge to the things Nafisi - and her students - took for granted before Iran was made an Islamic Republic. The personal connection that she and her students made with Nabokov, Fitzgearld, Henry James and Jane Austen remind us all of why we read literature. Living in such difficult times (the revolution, the increasingly restrictive demands of the Islamic republic on women, the Iran - Iraq war) gave me new insight into these works. Nafisi's brilliant prose also gave me new insight into the Iran in the late 20th century.

The challenges Nafisi (and her students) faced - from not dressing moderately enough (not even a strand of hair could be shown at one point), to the search for love and acceptance by members of the opposite sex, to the dangers of even reading these "radical western" authors provde a real sense of just how difficult it was (and I suppose is) to be a woman in modern Iran. Things became so unbearable for Nafisi that she and her family eventually left for America.

Nafisi writes with tenderness and passion about her books, her students, and especially about Iran. I highly recommend it.

This book was written with 3 themes. The first was about Iran during the revolution and its impact on society, specifically women. The second was about the lives of the women of the book-club that met "underground "at Nafisi's house every Thursday. And the third was about the classics and how they related to the lives of the students living thru such an incarcerated time. The fact that all 3 themes played such a major role in this book, I believe that contributed to its downfall. Nafisi should have made up her mind which theme she was going to focus on and stuck with it. As a result of her decision, reading this book became a long and drawn out process. She bounced back and forth in time which, also made it difficult to stay on track. She made so many referenced to the classics that as a reader, I felt I missed out on a lot of the meaning since I haven't read any of these books mentioned.



Having said that, this book did have a positive impact on me as a reader. It propelled me to do some research on the revolution, the Shah, the ayatollah and the Iran-Iraq war. I was about 12 in 1979. Although, I do remember some things about this time, I know very little about these subjects. There were some great quotes in this book "Alas, we who wanted kindness, could not be kind ourselves" and "He advised others that if they wanted to write better, they should fall in love". This was also another book that quoted one of my favorites, the famous "Whoever fights monsters..." quote by Nietzche. I have also become intrigued and may possibly read "Lolita", "Madame Bovery" or a James. This book does not make the top 10 or even top 20 of my favorite books. However, I will never forget it and I am very glad I read it.

I struggled through the first chapters... but the book became simply wonderful. Thank you, Ms. Nafisi, for a fascinating read and a window into another world.

I enjoyed the first 50 pages or so, but found the rest tedious. I made a point to read to the end primarily because I wanted to be fair when I wrote this review.

The author slowly revealed herself to be self-centered and arrogant, especially regarding her takes on various works of literature. Her descriptions -- both of Iran and of the novels she lectures about -- are far too wordy and superficially poetic. She is pretentious and often seems to be talking down to the reader, spewing off her insights into books and their many connections to the situation in Iran. She does not know the power of understatement, nor does she allow readers to draw their own conclusions. In fact, she hypocritically encourages her students to think for themselves while, in reality, she judges them harshly for disagreeing with her. And she, too, is guilty of "not thinking for herself" -- it is telling that whenever she wants to make an important point, she quotes somebody else (usually an author far more noteworthy than herself). Worst of all, her amateur and confusing writing style is peppered with erudite language that almost tricks the reader into thinking that the book is well-written and perhaps a little beyond his or her comprehension.

I really did want to like this book, given the intriguing subject and my own interest in literature, but it was not well-executed. The few insights I did get into life in Iran were interesting, but easily obtainable elsewhere.

This is obviously a very well detailed account of literature and life in Iran during the revolutionary days. However, I have to say it goes on and on and I found it taxing at times to continue reading.

It was interesting to read about the Islamic revolution in Iran, something I previously had little knowledge of. I appreciate the details about the lives of women but the author did tend to wax on about literature quite a bit, so it wasn't the quickest read.

Thank you Dr. Nifisi for coming to the U.S. What a great book and already listed as a classic. There is so much depth in this book. Literary criticism. Role of women. Life in Iran under Khomeni. Feelings of women suppressed. There is so much to learn about Iranians, links between great authors and life. With the new statistics regarding 74% of the people in Iran desiring open dialogue with the United States, this is a great book about the people in Iran that the author knew and loves. I am sending a copy of the book for her autograph.

Thank you Dr. Nifisi for coming to the U.S. What a great book and already listed as a classic. There is so much depth in this book. Literary criticism. Role of women. Life in Iran under Khomeni. Feelings of women suppressed. There is so much to learn about Iranians, links between great authors and life. I am sending a copy of the book for her autograph.

Literature has the power to awaken understanding, transform lives, and clarify reality. This is the message that "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books" by Azar Nafisi had for this reader.

This memoir can be read on three levels: 1) as a social history, 2) as literary criticism, and 3) as a partial memoir covering eleven years in the life of a woman scholar caught in the middle of an Islamic fundamentalist revolution--a revolution that conspired to make her life, and those of many of her students, irrelevant. Azar Nafisi is an Iranian-born, American-educated English literature professor who had the clear misfortune of returning to Iran to teach at the University of Tehran at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. This is the story of her eleven years as an English literature professor in Iran, immediately before, during, and after the Revolution.

As the memoir unfolds, we experience Nafisi teaching her students Nobokov's "Lolita," Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby," James' "Daisy Miller," and Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." We bear witness to literary criticism and historical reality intertwining. Each novel provides the author and her students with critical insights. Each student uses these insights in different, highly personal ways to navigate the turmoil around them. It is not necessary for the reader to have studied these books to understand this memoir; however, knowing them makes the reading all that more enjoyable.

"Reading Lolita in Tehran" deserves the high acclaim it has been receiving from reviewers. Read the book for its outstanding prose, brilliant literary criticism, and deep insight into the fundamentalist Islamic mind. But most of all, read it for the sheer joy of getting to know a very courageous woman--a modern-day Scheherazade who was able to use her considerable teaching skill to bring hope, new meaning, and understanding to herself and many of her students during a tumultuous period their lives.

This memoir by Azar Nafisi is so good on so many levels. On one level it is a meditation on the value for fiction for its own sake and the role of fiction in an oppressive society. There is romance and comfort in a rebellious act of reading literature when the world around you is chaotic and brutal. The rebellion is reading things that cause discomfort and seeing shades of grey in a world that only sees black and white. Instead of having students who groan about reading literature you have people try to seek out copies, read, discuss, write, and argue over books -- people flock to classes even if they don't belong to the school.

It offers a look into Iranian society through the experiences of a wide variety of women -- women who risk losing their identity from freer pre-revolutionary time and women who never knew they had the right to a seperate identity.

The book also goes into what it feels like to feel lost in your own homeland and what reasons we cling to stay and try to change things and what reasons we finally give up and go into exile. Some live in exile in their own country.

There is so much in this book to recommend it.

Nafisi spends too much time discussing the literature in her classes and trying to justify her academic credentials. I was frankly bored.

I have not yet read the book at all. It will be many weeks before I get to it.

Looking at the cover and reading the plot summation, I anticipated a brilliantly and eloquently written piece of work that would be in many ways different from anything i've ever read. Perhaps my expectations were just too high. I expected a witty and memorable novel depicting Iranian society at its worst, and the small group of women able to rise above limitations. Instead, I was met with frustration and disappointment after the first chapter, and had to trudge my way through the rest of the book to meet my summer reading requirement.

The plot is simple, really: a university professor in Iran during the 1980s who refused to conform to the societal standards of wearing a veil and types of behavior. When certain books by western authors are banned from the University such as Austen and Fitzgerald, she makes the bold and honorable move of quitting her job. She then recruits some nine female students to her house for "book club" meetings, during which they read banned novels. The meetings eventually turn out to be a source of refuge for these girls from the rest of the corrupt society, where they can take off their veils and take charge of their natural rights. One would expect such a simple storyline to be straighforward and at times interesting, but all I seemed to get out of this was that the women were not granted their rights. okay, we get it, move on. it certainly doesn't take some 300+ pages to make that statement.

Not only did it lose my interest with it's length, but the fact that Nafisi devotes pages and pages of description to each girl's personality threw me off, big time. Is it really that vital for me to know every trivial detail of each of their lives? especially when it does nothing but bore the reader and serves little purpose in the story? I don't think so. The excessive wordiness and focus on trivial details made this almost impossible to bear.

However, for all you fans of Middle Eastern literature out there, there is some light at the end of this dark tunnel. While the book itself can be considered a faliure, parts of this do give rare perspective and insight into Iranian society and gender roles. At times, I have to admit, it was quite fascinating to read about the effects the corruption has brought upon their lives.