Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books in The Roundtable

Jun 28, 2009 Wendy rated it did not like it

Shelves: memoir-biography

This book left me with a similar taste in my mouth to the one left by The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Both books gave an impression of a self-satisfied professor-author with an axe to grind, and who uses an odd mix of precious prose and literature class lecture transcripts (ugh). I went into Reading Lolita prepared for a gripping tale of an illegal women's reading group operating one police raid ahead of the stoning squad. And yet, somehow, it manages to be as dull as...as a lecture on how "realis This book left me with a similar taste in my mouth to the one left by The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Both books gave an impression of a self-satisfied professor-author with an axe to grind, and who uses an odd mix of precious prose and literature class lecture transcripts (ugh). I went into Reading Lolita prepared for a gripping tale of an illegal women's reading group operating one police raid ahead of the stoning squad. And yet, somehow, it manages to be as dull as...as a lecture on how "realism" is applied in a Henry James novel. Without the novel part.

One early problem I noticed and could never quite get over was the way the female students in the secret book club are introduced en masse--the swimmer, the one with the creepy brother, the "young" one--and yet these women are virtually indistinguishable from one another throughout the entire book. If only I could have made some sort of emotional connection with any of these individuals, this book would have resonated more. But the only emotion I felt was for a generic female "victim"--how can anyone not have sympathy for a teenager shot because she is "too beautiful" or for the musicians who are not allowed to show emotion on stage? All the best drama comes from the charged situation of post-revolution Iran, not from the characters. And the parts that aren't detailing these newspaper clipping events are sucked dry of life.

Another thing that bothered me was the way novels--or more accurately lecture transcripts about certain novel's themes--are awkwardly shoved in. I rather liked the Lolita parts, but the rest didn't really work as well. In one of her undergrad glasses the novel Gatsby is put on trial, and at first I thought "great! Interesting!" but the more I read, the more frustrated I became. Her argument seems to be that novels like Gatsby are complex, not black-and-white manuals of morality, which isn't exactly anything new. And yet, Reading Lolita is extremely black & white in its worldview. During the Gatsby Trial itself, the student playing the "prosecutor" whom Ms. Nafisi adamantly disagrees with presents his case "mumbling" and "droning", while Gatsby's champion argues with grace and poise. Whenever the author disagrees with a student, suddenly they have "squished eyes" and "ears jutting out" while her pet students are always quite lovely. At one point Nafisi rags on another male instructor who apparently would fail students who argued with his point of view. But I can't imagine a student daring to cross Nafisi either by arguing that, say Humbert was the real victim. Insta-F! I do side with many of her views on women's rights, but her arguments feel so charged with ad hominim that some of the inherent logic of these views are lost in the process.

One last nit-pick on prose. Why are some conversations presented in long, unbroken paragraphs that are utterly "uncontaminated" (to borrow from Monty Python) by quotation marks? This smacks to me of affectation. As for my comment on preciousness above, I'll just use this sentence as my example and rest my case: "Laleh began to search for some hidden treasure in her potatoes, making investigative circles with her inquisitive fork" (162).

I must be coming to this book a decade too late. And yet, pretending to present a complex situation in a complex manner (while using literary tie-ins, however shaky)--and then actually painting a starkly good/evil palate--AND making it unforgivably dull to boot--earns one star from me. ...more

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Sep 12, 2025 Rachel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Reread. Funny, the first time I read this much closer to my literary studies I was all: More talking about books! Less Iran! This time I appreciated both aspects of the work much more.

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Aug 02, 2022 Heather(Gibby) rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir

I really enjoyed a lot about this book, but it tries to so so many different things. For sure don't read this book unless you have read Lolita, The Great Gatsby. Henry James, and a lot of Jane Austen. as a lot of the book is analyzing these novels, and discussions about how they are relevant to the women of Iran.

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Jul 07, 2015 Pamela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Thought-provoking account of how the author, a professor of English literature, returned to Iran from the US in the post-revolution period to teach. Eventually she gave up her official post in protest at events there but held a discussion group in her own home with some of her most engaged students, examining works by Nabokov, Fitzgerald etc.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed it most when Nafisi is engaging with the girls in her study group, and when she relates her literary critici ...more

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