Reading Lolita in Tehran

I just finished Reading Lolita in Tehran. I know most people think this is a "chick book" but it was an incredibly interesting read. Especially the Gatsby section, which takes place in the years immediately following the Iranian revolution. That section should be required reading for everyone who complains about the dictatorial government of the United States.



Of course the bad thing is the endnotes contain yet another list designed to make me realize how poorly read I am:

Nuha al-Radi - Baghdad Diaries
Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin
Jane Austen - Emma
Jane Austen - Mansfield Park
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Saul Bellow - The Dean's December
Saul Bellow - More Die of Heartbreak
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Joseph Conrad - Under Western Eyes
Henry Fielding - Shamela
Henry Fielding - Tom Jones
Guastave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
Anne Frank - The Diary of Anne Frank
Henry James - The Ambassador
Henry James - Daisy Miller
Henry James - Washington Square
Franz Kafka - In the Penal Colony
Franz Kafka - The Trial
Katherine Kressman Taylor - Address Unknown
Herman Melville - The Confidence Man
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov - Invitation to a Beheading
Vladimir Nabokov - Pnin
Sarah Orne Jewett - The Country of the Pointed Firs
Iraj Pezeshkzad - My Uncle Napolean
Diane Ravitch - The Language Police
Marjane Sartrapi - Peresopolis
Scheherazade- A Thousand and One Nights
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
W. G. Sebald - The Emigrants
Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries
Jospeh Skvorecky - The Engineer of Human Souls
Muriel Spark - Loitering with Intent
Muriel Spark - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Italo Sveno - Confessions of Zeno
Peter Taylor - Summons to Memphis
Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Anne Tyler - Back When We Were Grownups
Anne Tyler - St. Maybe
Mario Vargas Llosa - Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter

Another thing (sorry I know this post is disorganized but this was a hard book to read and digest) I don't know about other readers of this book but I felt very frustrated through out my reading of it. I wanted to just reach out and strangle some of these people. I cant explain it well but basically it has to do with consenting to be governed. I kept feeling like the people were oppressed because the agreed to it. The intellectuals in Iran helped push the revolution that forced out the Shah. Then when things began going wrong the sat back and allowed it. I think if a couple dozen Imam's had ended up with their throats slit in 1979 we would be looking at a very different Iran today. Of course it is easy for me to sit here in the US and say that 30 years later.

Books,
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Iran