Book
Things I've been silent about : memories / Azar Nafisi.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781400063611 (hc) :
- Physical Description: xxi, 336 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
- Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : Random House ; c2008.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Nafisi, Azar > Family. Nafisi, Azar. Iranians > Biography. Women > Iran > Biography. Iran > Biography. Iran > Politics and government > 1979-1997. |
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 955.05092 Nafis | 31681001941145 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
A masterful memoir by the best-selling author ofReading Lolita in Tehran offers an eloquent portrait of her family and childhood in Iran, centered around her powerful mother, her manipulative fictions about herself and her past, and her unusual marriage, as she reflects on women's choices and her own struggle to free herself from her mother's influence. 250,000 first printing. - Baker & Taylor
A memoir offers a portrait of the author's family and childhood in Iran, centered around her powerful mother and her manipulative fictions about herself, as she reflects on women's choices and her own struggle to free herself from her mother's influence. - Random House, Inc.
I started making a list in my diary entitled âThings I Have Been Silent About.â Under it I wrote: âFalling in Love in Tehran. Going to Parties in Tehran. Watching the Marx Brothers in Tehran. Reading Lolita in Tehran.â I wrote about repressive laws and executions, about public and political abominations. Eventually I drifted into writing about private betrayals, implicating myself and those close to me in ways I had never imagined.
--From Things I Have Been Silent About
Azar Nafisi, author of the beloved international bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, now gives us a stunning personal story of growing up in Iran, memories of her life lived in thrall to a powerful and complex mother, against the background of a countryâs political revolution. A girlâs pain over family secrets; a young womanâs discovery of the power of sensuality in literature; the price a family pays for freedom in a country beset by political upheavalâthese and other threads are woven together in this beautiful memoir, as a gifted storyteller once again transforms the way we see the world and âreminds us of why we read in the first placeâ (Newsday).
Nafisiâs intelligent and complicated mother, disappointed in her dreams of leading an important and romantic life, created mesmerizing fictions about herself, her family, and her past. But her daughter soon learned that these narratives of triumph hid as much as they revealed. Nafisiâs father escaped into narratives of another kind, enchanting his children with the classic tales like the Shahnamah, the Persian Book of Kings. When her father started seeing other women, young Azar began to keep his secrets from her mother. Nafisiâs complicity in these childhood dramas ultimately led her to resist remaining silent about other personal, as well as political, cultural, and social, injustices.
Reaching back in time to reflect on other generations in the Nafisi family, Things Iâve Been Silent About is also a powerful historical portrait of a family that spans many periods of change leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79, which turned Azar Nafisiâs beloved Iran into a religious dictatorship. Writing of her motherâs historic term in Parliament, even while her father, once mayor of Tehran, was in jail, Nafisi explores the remarkable âcoffee hoursâ her mother presided over, where at first women came together to gossip, to tell fortunes, and to give silent acknowledgment of things never spoken about, and which then evolved into gatherings where men and women would meet to openly discuss the unfolding revolution.
Things Iâve Been Silent About is, finally, a deeply personal reflection on womenâs choices, and on how Azar Nafisi found the inspiration for a different kind of life. This unforgettable portrait of a woman, a family, and a troubled homeland is a stunning book that readers will embrace, a new triumph from an author who is a modern master of the memoir.
