I thought of this because we all judge a book by its cover, no matter how much we say we don't. We do it in our daily lives continually until we can learn more and decide.
So taking this into account, what if we were to take away the cultural constructs of today's society out and put them in the open and discuss them? What would happen? and how would it make people feel?
I read this right after I finished her sister’s epic tragedy
novel, Wuthering Heights, which
happens to be one of my all time favorite books. I can not believe I didn’t
read this easy going love novel. I
of course loved the story of the sad poor girl that achieves greatness. Jane Eyre is your likely heroine, is in
all purposes the good girl that you cheer for!
Like typical of stories from that time, there is a lot of
death and sadness and a series of unlikely events. It would have been a great
book to read when I was younger in the tweens! Fantastic!
About the 10th time I have read this book and I still like it, even though it has changed for me. I still love Heathcliff and his crazy self, loving Catherine.
I love that this book still astounds me, of course when I was younger I was so taken by the love that Heathcliff had that I was willing to forgive his meanness, now I feel more guilty for liking him as a character and feeling his pains.
It was great to read the book with people and learn about the background of the Bronte sisters and their horribly tragic lives. No wonder their books were tragic. I also think the society then saw such tragedy as part of their lives and willing to live with those kinds of issues.
I still recommend this book as it inspires great discussions.
Wow what a terrific book! I don’t even know where to begin
on the many facets that this book has .
First, as the book takes you through the four sections of
Nabokov, Fitzgerald, James and of course Jane Austen… you can not take your own
trip back to the memories you had when reading each of those books that Nafisi
discusses. It brings you back to the emotions and the feelings you had while
reading those books. If you hadn’t studied these books, it also takes you back
to rethink those books and see if you can see them in a different light. This
also makes me think that maybe I should re-read Lolita, or The Great Gatsby
or even some Henry James books that I have never opened.
The books also takes you into the memories of a group of
women between the 1970s and today. Unlike, my nice memories of sitting in bed,
or hiding in the closet at night to read for fear of staying up to late, these
women dealt with the fear of death resulting from the BANNED books they were reading. After the 1970s, Iran went through much
political turmoil with changing from the “un Islamic” shah to the very
religious Ayatollahs that changed Iran to the “Republic of Islam”. This book is
a biography with many other biographies laced with a population of people that
have been beaten and defeated not only physically but mentally and emotionally
as well. During this new regime,
women were made to wear the chador and the veil, to show their innocence, to
make men not want them, and not be held responsible for their rapes. People
were not allowed to drink, listen to music, smile, watch movies, or in any way
have a human life. Much of this “de westernization” had to do with readings and
books. Most books were either banned and or re-written to fit the Islamic
standard.
In a private class, Nafisi takes her life in her hands and
decides that her love of books needs continue and be shared. At any moment her house can be
searched, without a warrant, and these women be sent to jail for reading banned
book, where their bodies will never be recovered.
This book is lesson in Iran history, in women’s view of the
world from the religious and the liberal side, it is an emotional roller
coaster as you suffer through their emotional pains and embarrassments they are
made to deal with daily.
I highly recommend this read to all that live in today’s
world, as better understanding of a population of people in the middle
east. I salute those women who
stood up, to show their daughters that someone has to stand up. I bow to Nafisi
for her courageous words and tears she must have shed while writing such a
personal history of her life and the country she loved!
