Read this in book form, borrowed for a year and a half from a friend. I took a break to read Lolita as I found it might be a prerequisite. In the end, of course it was not. Another book about a point in history I know nothing about and was happy to learn about, though it was a bit hard to follow without background knowledge. I enjoyed the more autobiographical parts of the story over the literature assessments although I appreciate that they are there as a juxtaposition to life in Tehran and tell a lot about people in their reactions. Overall, a bit of a slog for me.

I felt a little misled by the back of the book. It says this book is about the author's literature class with students in her house. But then parts two and three are not about that at all. Part four is though. Once I got over that, I liked it a lot! It made me want to read more of the books she was writing about, and I love this creative approach to a memoir. Also, I almost cried at the end.

I was really looking forward to reading some narratives of individual lives in Tehran, but this book was a big letdown. There was no continuity in the book, and piecemeal information about the members of the reading group as well as the political situation in Iran. I had to put it down about a third of the way through, it was just too frustrating.

I know this book was a hugely popular best-seller, but once I started reading it and talking about it with people, it seemed like EVERYONE hated it. I only found one person who really liked it. Most of the people I spoke with never even finished it.

Me? I forced my way through it. It was just so dry. I found the stories of women's lives in Iran during the revolution fascinating, but the book doesn't focus on that as much as I would have liked. I was also disappointed that some of the books 'read' in Tehran weren't read by her small, private, in-home class of women, but by her students at the University. In the end, I really only wanted to know what happened to the students in her private class. I worried for their safety - what if they were caught? Would they be punished?

The rest of the book I could have done without.

I think this is one of those books that you finish and don't really understand how it affects you until several weeks later. I have had this on my shelf for years. Eventually one day I couldn't ignore it any longer and sat down to truly read and enjoy it. The author does a wonderful job of painting her life as a teacher and a woman, in the difficult context of life in Iran. At times it seemed that she couldn't decide which she wanted to focus on - her life and the lives of her students, or politics. The first half of the book focused on the former, and the second half the latter. For me the first half was more personally compelling, which the second half was more intellectually interesting. I do think that was how the author intended it though - the personal and political was not separable in the world she lived in.

There's something secretive about this book. Perhaps it's the juxtaposition of Lolita and Tehran. It's deliciously inviting, just where can Nafisi be going with this? It's a story about a woman's struggle during the Iranian revolution to continue teaching at university, fight the oppression and enjoy an educational book club at her house discussing all manner of texts that would be deemed controversial. It's really interesting to read the current goings on alongside the particular book of the week and the ladies opinions about it all. I think all the layering just proves how complicated the situation is/was and how important it is that everyone has a voice.

While it was fascinating to read how the literature read paralleled or illuminated life in Iran, there was way too much of the I'm-a-lit-professor-what-I-have-to-say-is-important voice. The lives of the readers and the author were interesting enough, and I would have liked more of that versus the distracting, annoying, unnecessary lit analysis.

interesting insight into Iranian history. I just didn't like the style in which it was written.

This is a good book but wasn't what I expected or look for when I read these types of books. This book delves into literature and life in Tehran equally. A little too much literature analysis included for me. Even though it doesn't matter to the book that I read some of the works she referred to, I kept feeling bored or like I couldn't relate when she discussed books I hadn't read. I would have liked the focus to be more on living and teaching forbidden material in Tehran than share the focus with the literature. Literature bluffs might like this a little more!

While I can't deny that this book is interesting, it just was not a page-turner for me. It seemed to take forever to finish, and I don't really enjoy that feeling. Maybe if I had had more time to devote to reading it in big chunks, rather than small bites, I don't know.

Two quotes I love, however:

"In all great works of fiction, regardless of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience of that life, an essential defiance. This affirmation lies in the way the author takes control of reality by retelling it in his own way, thus creating a new world. Every great work of art, I would declare pompously, is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life. The perfection and beauty of form rebels against the ugliness and shabbiness of the subject matter. This is why we love Madame Bovary and cry for Emma, why we greedily read Lolita as our heart breaks for its small, vulgar, poetic and defiant orphaned heroine."

"A novel is not an allegory, I said as the period was about to come to an end. It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing. I just want you to remember this. That is all; class dismissed."