Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books records and interprets the experiences of Azar Nafisi, a novice literature professor, as she returns to her radically changing homeland after studying in the U.S. Her memoir brings the reader into two distant worlds: the fictional landscapes of great novels and the difficult reality of Iran in the wake of the sweeping political and cultural revolution that began in 1979.

Currently a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Nafisi was schooled abroad (including a stint at the University of Oklahoma in Norman), but returned home to Iran to teach English literature just as the Ayatollah Khomeini-led regime began editing the daily lives of Iranians and severely limiting women’s rights. The country weathers a protracted war with Iraq, and the author endures the continual incursions into personal and academic freedom foisted upon students and professors by an odd and contentious coalition of fundamentalist, Marxist, and nonsectarian revolutionaries.

Nafisi ultimately decides to abandon the compromised universities in favor of bringing students into her home for secret classes on banned and restricted books. Her female students arrive at her front door swaddled head-to-toe in the state-mandated robes and veils. As they enter the sanctuary of her home, they shed their outer wrappings to reveal their t-shirts, earrings, and genuine literary opinions.

This book club in extremis frames Nafisi’s memoir, and its participants provide a sympathetic cast. These young women are coming of age in a society that fosters a zealous fixation on their movements and appearances – while simultaneously seeking to render them invisible. Reading becomes their defense; in books, they carve out a space for resistance and self-definition. The group reads Pride and Prejudice at a time when arranged marriages have again become commonplace. They encounter Jay Gatsby’s amorous affair with Daisy while living in a country where the punishment for adultery is being stoned to death.

Nafisi powerfully illustrates how literature allows us to locate and understand ourselves through the written word. She believes that great novels are inherently empathetic, teaching us how to see our own reflections in the lives of others. In her memoir, she delves into works by Nabokov, Fitzgerald, Austen, Henry James, and other writers. At the same time, she also opens the door of her own living room in Tehran, inviting us to read from her perspective, to see from her place and time. It truly makes a world of difference.

Review by Mark Bradshaw

Afterword: If this book interests you, I recommend taking a look at Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up during the upheaval of the Iranian revolution. It’s a lively, funny story told in comic strip form. A review of it is available here:

www.watermarkbooks.com/review0503-003.html