We survived our 50 books in one year challenge. In 2009 we are still reading...

Monday, November 16, 2009

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir In Books by Azar Nafisi (#41, Nonfiction)

This book was a bit of a chore to get through. On the back it says, "Anyone who has ever belonged to a book group must read this book." I disagree. At best, it should have said, "Anyone who has ever read each and every one of the books the author discusses in this memoir might consider reading this book."

I've read Lolita and F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I haven't read anything else by Nabakov, and I haven't read James Joyce, but I have read every Jane Austen novel. These are the authors that are weaved into the story of a tumultuous Iran. A world in which I can't imagine living, that even seems fake to read about. It is really hard to follow her narrating and stories if the reader is not familiar with the book she is referring to -- that is just strike one.

I enjoy being educated and I enjoy meaningful memoirs, but I got really bored reading the continual analogies between Humbert Humbert, Daisy, or Elizabeth Bennet to various people, events, and situations in Tehran. The literary connections that the author constantly tries to make between novels and her life in Tehran felt forced. It was interesting, believable and new at first, but then as she kept doing it chapter after chapter, I got bored and started to skim. I believe that she and many of her students probably did use fiction to escape the extremely oppressive lives they were living, but I think the interpersonal relations she had, with very limited references to characters in novels, would have made for a much better memoir.