Reading Lolita in Tehran

A Memoir in Books

audio cd

English language

Published May 7, 2004 by Recorded Books.

ISBN:
9781402590849
OCLC Number:
55806021

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (1 review)

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azar Nafisi, a bold and inspired teacher, secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; some had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they removed their veils and began to speak more freely–their stories intertwining with the novels they were reading by Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, as fundamentalists seized hold of the universities and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the women in Nafisi's living room spoke not only of the books they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Azar Nafisi's luminous masterwork gives us a …

14 editions

Review of 'Reading Lolita in Tehran' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I enjoyed this book. I've been trying to read more non-fiction and I thought this one would be good to get me back into the genre. It was! It's worth considering for any readers who like thoughtful conversations about culture, history, literature, or interpersonal relationships.

The book is structured as a memoir describing a group of young women studying Lolita together with Ms. Nafisi in 1990s Tehran. As the women met to discuss the novel, their exploration of its themes formed a framework for talk about their lives and how the politics and culture of Iran affected them.

I read Lolita a long time ago, so I'd forgotten a lot. Ms. Nafisi's memoir would give any reader a valuable literary analysis of Lolita, but it was also a truly rich depiction of women struggling with oppression on a personal level (Lolita and the book group members) and on a …

Subjects

  • Ethnic Cultures - General
  • Personal Memoirs
  • Women
  • Unabridged Audio - Autobiography/Biography