Reading Lolita in Tehran hasn’t sat neglected on my shelf as long as other books have (apologies to The Scarlet Letter), but the prospect of reading it exuded a certain level of Ominous. I needed a push to pick it up. That push came in the form of my mother loving audiobooks + bookstore audiobook sale + Mother’s Day shopping = Mother-Daughter book club time! With her new audiobook and my tattered paperback, we kept pace with each other fairly well. Apparently, I inherited my feast-famine reading pace from her, haha. We texted and chatted about our reactions and thoughts. The paperback version has reading guide questions in the back matter, so we promised to go over those in person next time we meet. In prep for our future discussion and due to the sheer amount of revelations I had while reading, this review is like a long, detailed summary.

This book, sadly and creepily, became extremely relevant with Mahsa Amini’s murder earlier this year. One of Dr. Nafisi’s students goes through a similar experience, though she survives. Seeing the headlines, reading this book, and writing this review—it gives me a strange sense of dislocation in time and space. Nothing has changed—everything has changed. Living in the USA through 9/11 and the Bush presidency as a white Catholic woman, Iran is this big blank space in my mind. I have to dig through layers of Islamophobia, xenophobia, and racism to get at the smallest kernel of reality. As a memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a primary source on life during the Iranian Revolution and Islamic Republic of Iran, but it has a controversy section on Wikipedia all the same. I can’t let the education end here, which is why Fatemeh Keshavarz’s Jasmine and Stars and Geraldine Brooks’ Nine Parts of Desire are on my To Read List. I’d love more recs!

Dr. Nafisi splits her memoir into four sections. Each section covers a different era of her life, and Dr. Nafisi examines her experiences through the lens of Western literature classics. It’s not necessary to have read the books she mentions—Wikipedia summaries served in a pinch. As one might expect, I found it easier to follow her analysis if I’d read the work. The first section is titled “Lolita,” and discusses Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and Invitation to a Beheading. Through these works, Dr. Nafisi goggles at the absurdities inherent in totalitarianism and begins her secret book club in post-Revolutionary Iran. I was especially struck by the contradiction in women’s power. The government is in the process of stripping more and more of their political rights. The roving bands of morality police hack away at women’s right as humans. The veil is a major symbol that women and “evil American influences” have been “defeated.” One would guess that women have no power. Except if a woman takes off her veil in public, she can trigger a riot. With the simple act of removing a bit of clothing, women can bring about days-long chaos in the streets. That’s such a weird societal place to inhabit.

The next section is “Gatsby.” At the start of the Iranian Revolution and about 11 years before “Lolita,” Dr Nafisi still teaches Western Literature classes at university. Some students are more obsessed with purity politics than what F. Scott Fitzgerald has to say, so Nafisi hits upon the brilliant idea to put The Great Gatsby on trial. The conservative student “lawyer” demands The Great Gatsby be struck from the syllabus because it glorifies a rich, American lifestyle. As he argues, his words lose focus and morph into a basic propaganda speech—making it clear to everyone that he’s not read the book. The irony is Fitzgerald hates the ultra-rich Americana, just like the conservative students. The liberal student lawyer points this irony out through careful reading of the text. Meanwhile, Communist students also want The Great Gatsby thrown out, because it doesn’t support Communism. This section was absolutely hair-raising for me, because I see these anti-intellectual, neo-puritanism debates play out over tumblr…like, every day. Fundamentalism is fundamentalism, no matter which religion’s coat of paint’s on top. This section made me realize that “radical politics” means extreme left OR extreme right. Whether book banners claim to be a liberal or conservative political party, they still harm society by banning books.

Stepping further back in her timeline, Dr. Nafisi touches on the broken American dream, as depicted in Gatsby, and contrasts it with her youthful dream of Revolution. This theme continues in the next section, “James,” which centers “Daisy Miller” and “Washington Square” by Henry James. When Dr. Nafisi attended university in the USA, she protested American imperialism and chanted violent slogans. The Revolution was supposed to be her generation’s time to shine and bring about a better world. However, the generation didn’t think their “better world” through. The slogans didn’t remain slogans, but became real-world violence. Dr. Nafisi feels at once a deep betrayal and a deep horror at her actions. They realized their “dream,” and it was terrible. The Iran-Iraq War compounded Dr. Nafisi’s misery, as she’s expelled from university and bombs fall near-constantly on Tehran. Imagine raising two small children during all of that!

The last section centers on Jane Austen, particularly Pride and Prejudice. This section mostly ties up everything in a bow, but raises important points about art. We circle back to the book club to find out how it broke apart and what led Dr. Nafisi to leave Iran (she’s officially banished from the country, nowadays). In the barren wasteland of totalitarianism, the people hunger for art, no matter the quality. Dr. Nafisi makes an incredibly mind-blowing point about Jane Austen’s refusal to put geo-politics in her work. In all Austen’s work, you don’t hear about the Napoleonic Wars, or slavery, or whatever the Regent is doing. This daring storytelling decision asks that even though the personal is political…should it be? We want politicians OUT of our bedrooms, toilets, and doctors’ appointments. We want to live and let live, so long as no harm’s done.

Overall, Reading Lolita in Tehran was a revelation. It made me think about myself and my world—while expanding my view on what that world contains. It’s the perfect book to discuss in a club. Throughout, Dr. Nafisi emphasizes the triumph of empathy and compassion, and how these heroic traits are honed through reading. I couldn’t agree more. Reading Lolita in Tehran certainly did that.