Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

This book is the story of a professor in Iran who starts an English literature class for some of her best students under the disapproving Islamist regime.

I found the book itself quite interesting, but I didn't much like the author's writing style. Despite the fact that it was non-fiction, she used the literary device of having the protagonist conveniently thinking through the exposition in great detail while doing mundane everyday tasks. I don't mind this device in fiction, but it really grated here. A description of the socio-political context for the Ayatollah's rise to power does not need to be interspersed with mentions of chopping up cucumbers and adding salt and pepper to taste.

However, despite these distractions, the book was quite the food for thought. It was fascinating to see how the appearance of morality was favoured by the powers that be over actual morality itself. It was also interesting the parallels that kept popping to mind between Iran's Islamist regime and certain political factions that can be found in North America.

This book is quite worth reading, but if you do read it, make sure you have read Lolita, Daisy Miller and Pride and Prejudice first, so you can fully appreciate how the author uses literature to frame her stories. I have not read Lolita and it's been almost 10 years since I read Pride and Prejudice, and I think my reading of this book would have benefited from a more current knowledge of all three works.