Bogormen

Title: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Author: Azar Nafisi
Genre: Non-fiction, Cultural
Rating: 6/10
# pages: 343
Date read: December, 2008

Summary: In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to its repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels.

For two years they met to talk, share and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color". Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity", she writes.

Review: "A Memoir in Books" - the concept sounded fascinating. Especially for a book lover like me. Unfortunately, it didn't really work for me. It ended up taking me almost a month to read this book, because it just didn't capture me. Not that it was boring, and I enjoyed it while I was reading it, I just found it all too easy to put down, and found myself forgetting it for weeks on end because I had more interesting books to pick up in its stead.

Also, the "in books" part of the memoir seemed almost added on. I think I would have enjoyed it more had it just been a memoir in its own right instead of Azar trying to tie everything up with the books that she'd decided 'fit'. Because the parts about her life in Iran were absolutely fascinating, and there were some quotes that'll stay with me for a very long time, (eg. "Criminals should not be tried. The trial of a criminal is against human rights. Human rights demand that we should have killed them in the first place when it became known that they were criminals" - Ayatollah Khomeini - pretty representative of the revolution of 1979), as I really knew much too little of what happened there.

I hadn't read many of the books she mentioned (mainly "Lolita", "The Great Gatsby", something by Henry James (never did find out which book it was) and "Pride and Prejudice), but don't think that made too much of a difference in my opinion of the book, as the events refered to were pretty well described.

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Title: Frit fald over Amazonas (Free Fall Over the Amazons)
Author: Ulla Lund
Genre: YA, cultural
Rating: 8/10
# pages: 176
Date read: October, 2008

Summary: 16-year old Lone is on her way to Rio de Janeiro to visit a friend when the plane she's on is hijacked and crashes over the Amazons. She's saved from the wreck by a group of Yanomami indians - the last natur-people in the Amazons - and has to learn to live by their rules until she once again can return to Denmark and so-called "civilisation".

Review: I first read this book in 1992 - it's one of the few books I remember exactly where and when I read for the first time, because it affected me very strongly. I loved reading about how Lone was introduced to the Yanomami culture and came to love the people. And I was completely appalled at how they were treated as nothing more than animals by the 'white people' who wanted to mine the uranium discovered in their area. Such treatment always makes my blood boil.

Fortunately Free Fall Over the Amazons passes the test of time, and I enjoyed it just as much on this read-through as when I first discovered it.

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Title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Author: Lisa See
Genre: Cultural
Rating: 9/10
# pages: 301
Date read: September, 2008

Summary: In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames", in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become laotongs at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Review: Very interesting book. I had a hard time putting it down - not because of the plot as much as because of the characters and the culture and traditions described. I winced when reading of how Lily had her feet tied, but was also fascinated. There was a tad too much foreshadowing, but since it was written like a memoir, that didn't bother me too much.

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Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns Author: Khaled Hosseini Genre: Cultural Rating: 9/10 # pages: 318 Date read: June, 2008

Summary: A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years--from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding--that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives--the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness--are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Review: Written by the author of Kite Runner but leagues better. I was very disappointed by KR and therefore reluctant to start A Thousand Splendid Suns, but quickly realized it was far superior. As always I am shocked and appalled to read about how the Taliban treated women. I hope they will never (as Hosseini predicted) return to power in that manner.

Politics aside, the book is well-written and captivating. One can't help but feel sympathetic with the two main characters and weep for them in their times of trial. A much better book than I'd expected.

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Title: Infidel Author: Ayaan Hirsi Ali Genre: Non-fiction, biography, cultural Rating: 9/10 # pages: 414 Date read: May, 2008

Summary: Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.

One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission.

Infidel is the eagerly awaited story of the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. With a gimlet eye and measured, often ironic, voice, Hirsi Ali recounts the evolution of her beliefs, her ironclad will, and her extraordinary resolve to fight injustice done in the name of religion. Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries largely ruled by despots. In her early twenties, she escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Muslim immigrant women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament. Even though she is under constant threat -- demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from her family and clan -- she refuses to be silenced.

Review: A very powerful and disturbing book. Hitherto I've been among those who say that Islam is as a whole a peaceful religion and that people who commit attrocities like September 11th in the name of Islam belonged to a violent minority, condemned even by most other Muslims. That may still be the case in the West, but according to Ayaan - a woman who's lived it, devout Muslims would all be like that if they dared.

I feel racist just writing that, but there can be no doubt that this is the message of Ayaan's book, and I have to admit I was appalled to read it. I know it's hardly unbiased, but probably more so, than most other accounts you'd find. It's a very interesting book and one I would highly recommend to everybody as I think the book touches on some important topics where it's necessary to raise an awareness.

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Title: Wild Swans - Three Daughters of China Author: Jung Chang Genre: Non-fiction, cultural Rating: 9/10 # pages: 618 Date read: May, 2008

Summary: In Wild Swans Jung Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century. Chang's grandmother was a warlord's concubine. Her gently raised mother struggled with hardships in the early days of Mao's revolution and rose, like her husband, to a prominent position in the Communist Party before being denounced during the Cultural Revolution. Chang herself marched, worked, and breathed for Mao until doubt crept in over the excesses of his policies and purges. Born just a few decades apart, their lives overlap with the end of the warlords' regime and overthrow of the Japanese occupation, violent struggles between the Kuomintang and the Communists to carve up China, and, most poignant for the author, the vicious cycle of purges orchestrated by Chairman Mao that discredited and crushed millions of people, including her parents.

Review: An absolutely fascinating book. Just like most other people in the Western world I know far too little about the history and culture of China and as such was at the same time totally fascinated and appalled by what I read here. Allegedly Mao caused more deaths than Hitler and Stalin put together, yet hardly any time is spent on him in history classes. I wonder why?

Wild Swans is long and heavy but not at all boring and I'm glad to finally have read it... if for no other reason, then to realize how incredible fortunate I am to live in a country like Denmark. It is a book that is just as important to read as the devastating accounts of World War 2, yet unfortunately more often neglected.

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Title: The Poisonwood Bible Author: Barbara Kingsolver Genre: Cultural Rating: 7/10 # pages: 614 Date read: May, 2008

Summary: The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's four daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?

In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and on the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortunes across a span of more than 30 years.

Review: Writing a review of this book is really difficult, because I honestly don't know what I thought of it - it was interesting, yet really slow, impossible to put down, yet boring. I think the best word for it is intriguing and I was really glad to learn more about Congo. One thing struck me though, if Barbara Kingsolver's research is accurate I'd have to agree with those who say that Africa was better off without us (I write 'us' because if it hadn't been the Americans, it'd have been another Western country taking advantage of them). Disgusting really.

I'd recommend it, but be warned that it's a slow read. Took me almost a month to get through.

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Title: Under the Tuscan Sun Author: Frances Mayes Genre: Non-fiction, cultural Rating: 10/10 # pages: 327 Date read: December, 2007

Summary: In this memoir of her buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Frances Mayes reveals the sensual pleasure she found living in rural Italy, and the generous spirit she brought with her. She revels in the sunlight and the color, the long view of her valley, the warm homey architecture, the languor of the slow paced days, the vigor of working her garden, and the intimacy of her dealings with the locals. Cooking, gardening, tiling and painting are never chores, but skills to be learned, arts to be practiced, and above all to be enjoyed. At the same time Mayes brings a literary and intellectual mind to bear on the experience, adding depth to this account of her enticing rural idyll.

Review: I was about 100 pages into it before I realized it was non-fiction rather than fiction - it read like a novel! I'm now starting to understand Valancy's fascination with John Foster's books in The Blue Castle.

"Under the Tuscan Sun" is amazing. From the very first page I was hooked, and by the time I'd finished the book, I had such a desire to go to at least Italy, perhaps even Tuscana and experience the culture and atmosphere so eloquently described in the book.

It's a book that'll make you really, really hungry for good Italian food. Fortunately it has lots of recipes included, so I know what I'll be making for dinner the next couple of days.

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Title: The Joy Luck Club Author: Amy Tan Genre: Cultural Rating: 7/10 # pages: 285 Date read: May, 2006

Summary: Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's telling the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

Review: I don't know... Part of me loved the different anecdotes told, and how the different stories fit together, but another part of me was a bit disappointed. Not because it was a bad book in any shape or form - not at all - it was just very different from what I had expected. I think I'll like it more as a reread, because then I know what to expect. I'm really surprised this has been turned into a movie though! I can't really see how that would work. Have any of you both read the book and seen the movie?

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Title: Digging To America Author: Anne Tyler Genre: Cultural Rating: 9/10 # pages: 277 Date read: September, 2007

Review: Through an amazing coincidence, two families are gathered to meet the same flight in order to welcome home the Korean girls they have adopted. Thrown together by chance, the Donaldsons and the Yazdans become friends, even though they have nothing in common other than adopting girls from the same country.

The Donaldsons is a big and boisterous all-American family who'll use any excuse to hold a party. They let their girl keep her Korean name, and try to teach her as much about her culture as possible. The Yazdans on the other hand is a small and private family of first-generation Americans hailing from Iran. They immediately decided to Americanize the name of their girl, in order to help her fit in as easily as possible.

Digging to America is a wonderful tale of the first five years the girls spend in USA. The characters are described lovingly but with tongue in cheek, making the reader immediately care for these quirky people. Sure Mother Donaldson thinks she knows everything better than the Yazdans and Grandmother Yazdan secretly looks down upon the Donaldsons for being "so typically American", but through the years they get to know and love each other and realize they aren't so different after all.

The point of view changes from chapter to chapter with every second chapter being told by somebody from the Donaldson family and every second by somebody from the Yazdan family. This works out really well and is a good way to show the personality of all the main characters.

I couldn't put the book down once I started it. For one thing my husband and I have considered adoption ourselves, and therefore I had a personal interest in the book. But even if that hadn't been the case I would still have enjoyed it, because it is an incredibly charming book. The characters are complete with flaws and everything, they're people I know and love and I feel at home together with them.

A perfect comfort read about two families, how they work independently and together, and what it really means to be an American.
(Written for Armchair Interviews.)

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