Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) is a book by Azar Nafisi that mixes fiction and reality and combines autobiography and literary criticism. Set in Tehran, Iran in 1995–1997, it tells the story of Nafisi, who is a teacher, and a group of her seven best students. They meet to discuss literature at Nafisi’s home. The women’s inner lives and identities are hidden and suppressed in public, but their minds are free and active. Woven throughout the book are analyses of famous works of literature, which are given new breath in the context of Nafisi’s literature group.

Azar Nafisi has a different and beautiful way of writing. I wish I could read, quote, and retain what I read the way Nafisi does. I enjoyed the way her love of books permeates her thoughts and how she gives so much care to her words. Maybe I'll be like that one day.

Throughout the story, Nafisi brings you in close and then holds you off at just the right moments to make you miss a full understanding. In reading this book, you can feel that strange way that humans interact. We want people to know us and have intimacy, and at the same time, we hold back, not wanting people to know certain things. I don't think I've read a book where that strange sensation is depicted better. At the same time, because the author uses this method, the story often felt cold to me. If you are not close to any of the characters and are held off purposefully from understanding them, then your connection to the story is minimal.

To me, the best parts of the novel involve the seven students and their life stories and goals, but unfortunately, there is minimal information provided to differentiate the women. They are forgotten for much of the story. Their identities are guarded, and it is unclear how much of their stories are even true. This obscurity results in a lack of characterization and is a major downfall of the book.

I especially liked Nafisi’s magician, how he was guarded, and how they both loved and hurt one another. They must have had a great relationship, but I wish we could have learned more. However, if we did, perhaps the relationship would not have seemed so charming and mysterious. We learn little of the magician, and we learn even less about Nafisi’s own family. The purposeful emotional obscurity makes me wonder why the book is titled “memoir,” when the author conveys herself in such an impersonal manner.

Overall, this book was thoughtful, different, and interesting. It allows the reader to think about many topics: literature, history, feminism, censorship, the role of teachers, and politics. It is definitely worth reading.

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Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton

Published in 1927, Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton provides a satirical and scathing look at the Jazz Age. It explores the lives of members of a family in New York City in the 1920s and the characters relationships with one another.

Pauline Manford is a bustling mother whose schedule is packed with cure-alls, fads, religious experiences, and exercise regimens. Beyond all that, she’s occupied by her two children, husband, ex-husband, speeches, parties, and dinners. The novel opens with a look at Pauline’s schedule for the morning: "7.30 Mental uplift. 7.45 Breakfast. 8. Psycho-analysis. 8.15 See cook. 8.30 Silent Meditation. 8.45 Facial massage. 9. Man with Persian miniatures. 9.15 Correspondence. 9.30 Manicure. 9.45 Eurythmic exercises. 10. Hair waved. 10.15 Sit for bust. 10.30 Receive Mothers' Day deputation. 11. Dancing lesson. 11.30 Birth Control committee at Mrs.--." Pauline’s daily flurry of activity distracts her from her crumbling family.

Pauline is married to Dexter, but has no idea what really makes him happy. She visits her ex-husband, Arthur Wyant, just to look upon him with pity. Her son from her first marriage, Jim Wyant, is married to an irresponsible flapper named Lita. Lita is bored of everything, including her husband. Pauline's daughter, Nona Dexter, is perceptive and very different from her mother. Nona tries to support her family and protects her parents while they neglect to protect her. Meanwhile, she's in love with a married man.

The world in Twilight Sleep is filled with social trade-offs, underhanded plans, masquerades, and deception. Pauline struggles to hide the inappropriate activities of her spiritual advisor because his exercise recommendations took inches off her frame. Meanwhile, the rest of the family pulls strings to keep Jim and Lita's marriage afloat, but when Dexter begins to fall for Lita, can appearances hold up or will the careful order crash down?

The title of the novel refers to a medically-induced state called "twilight sleep" created during childbirth due to the use of the drugs morphine and scopolamine. Combination of these drugs caused a loss of pain (analgesia) and a loss of memory (amnesia). This procedure was popular in New York City in the early 1900s because it caused women to have less pain and little to no memory of giving birth. In Twilight Sleep, the characters rush through life trying to avoid pain, lacking understanding, and missing meanings until they are shaken into awareness.

Edited portrait of Edith Wharton, 1889, Roseti, 297 Fifth Avenue, New York. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Favorite Quote:
“Nona glanced down absently at her slim young hands—so helpless and inexperienced looking. All these tangled cross-threads of life, inextricably and fatally interwoven; how were a girl's hands to unravel them?”

Related Reviews:
The Reef by Edith Wharton
Summer by Edith Wharton

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Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith

Tomorrow Will Be Better is a novel by Betty Smith that was first published in 1948. Best known for her classic novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith writes stories that are true-to-life and emotionally engrossing. The heroine of this coming-of-age story is Margy Shannon.

Margy has grown up in poverty, and she wants to escape her cruel, overbearing mother and her broken, overworked father. Margy believes that her fate will be different than that of her parents, and that she will make better choices than them. This hope that things will improve is one of the novel's themes.

After her high school graduation, Margy finds work as a mail order correspondent in an office managed by Mr. Prentiss. Mr. Prentiss is dominated by his mother, who prevents him from marrying by making him feel guilty. The mother-child relationship is a second theme of the novel. Margy dreams of being abandoned by her mother, Flo, but her mother denies ever leaving her. Instead of expressing her love for her daughter, Flo berates Margy and judges her harshly. Margy's independence in her new job is limited because her mother takes most of Margy's paycheck from her.

Later on, Margy marries Frankie Malone, thinking that marriage will bring her freedom and a better life. She's not in love with Frankie, but both want to escape from their families. Frankie's mother is possessive of her son and does not reach out to Margy. After her marriage, Margy quits her job, in keeping with tradition.

Instead of bringing her happiness, Margy’s marriage brings her isolation and further struggles with poverty. Frankie is uninterested in his wife, and Margy eventually realizes that he is gay and that her marriage is meaningless to him. When Margy tells Frankie she is pregnant, he is revolted and angry. She gives birth, alone, to a stillborn girl. Margy's grief and abandonment weigh upon her, and, finally, she angrily tells her mother and mother-in-law how she feels about them. Saddled with hospital bills and funeral costs, Margy proposes returning to work, but Frankie refuses.

At the end of the novel, Margy writes to Mr. Prentiss without her husband's permission, leaving the reader knowing that her marriage is over, and hoping that her life will improve. Though the future is uncertain for Margy, she continued to try and hope for a better tomorrow.


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Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

Lucy is a short novel by Jamaica Kincaid that was first published in 1990. It tells the story of Lucy Josephine Potter, a nineteen-year-old girl who leaves her home in the West Indies to be a nanny in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Lucy feels she has escaped her home and expresses hatred for it. At the same time, she compares all of her new observations to the standards of her early life.

Lucy is young, but she seems more immature than others her age. She announces disgust for anything she dislikes without consideration. Lucy’s disarming honestly is a strength at times, but more frequently it’s a sign that she wants to shock others and keep people away from her by lashing out. Kincaid never gives the reader a clear reason for why Lucy behaves in this way.

One interesting aspect of the story was Lucy’s relationship with her mother. Lucy despises her mother and her choices and refuses to read her letters. Moreover, she refuses to see her mother and treats her with contempt when it is clear that her mother needs her. Still, at times, Lucy seems to crave her mother’s company, although she turns away from her. While this behavior may be a form of rebellion, there appears to be more to their relationship. Unfortunately, Lucy’s detachment from her mother was left unresolved at the novella’s conclusion.

Lucy is dissatisfied with her life although she has a wonderful position caring for sweet children. She has a friendly employer Mariah (whose own marriage is crumbling). It’s hard to understand Lucy’s dissatisfaction and choices. She drops her evening nursing studies and attaches herself to a man, who is described by her friend Penny as a pervert. Lucy is even hostile towards Penny, the only friend she has that’s her own age. Instead of growing and maturing to become a stronger woman, Lucy acts more self-absorbed, stunted, and lost at the end of the story than at the beginning making this an unusual coming-of-age story.

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Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) by Helen Fielding is a realistic look at a sometimes shallow 30-something-year-old woman. The story gives us a yearlong view into Bridget’s life through her diary. Her records are an attempt to honestly appraise her self-worth.

Bridget has excellent, lovable friends. She can find a job, she gets invited to parties, and she can find a date. Bridget could realize her value, but she wallows in self-doubt. She obsesses over her weight, tallying her calories along with her massive drink and tobacco consumption. This daily tallying of her vices grows tiring quickly. While most of us have dark moments, Bridget’s seem eternal. Bridget’s idea of her life in her diary and the way she defines herself are entirely different from her potential.

Despite these discrepancies, I still rooted for Bridget. It’s easy to identify with her neuroses and humor on some level because we’re all searching for what makes us happy. Sometimes the situations Bridget gets herself into are ridiculous and funny. At other times, her thoughts are crushing and full of despair.

As I read the story, I hoped that Bridget would find some happiness, but I had no worries. I knew that Fielding’s plot was derived from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, so Bridget’s happy ending was guaranteed.

It’s rare that I prefer a film to the book it is based upon, but that's the case for Bridget Jones's Diary. I like the 2001 film version of Bridget Jones's Diary starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant better than the novel. Bridget Jones's Diary is actually one of only two books where I like the movie version better than the book—the other being Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams is a science fiction and comedy novel about Arthur Dent, a Englishman who survives after the destruction of Earth. The story begins when Earth is destroyed. Arthur is rescued by an alien named Ford Prefect, and the pair begin hitchhiking through the galaxy on a Vogon spacecraft. Ford is a researcher for the revised edition of a reference book called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is stored on a device similar to a palm pilot. Then their adventures begin as they travel through the galaxy.

It’s a unique story that is imaginative and very humorous. It’s also a very quick read. I wish I had read the book earlier while I was in high school and my friends were hyping it up, so I would have been able to joke about mice, Deep Thought, and 42 along with them.

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