I'd rather read 'Lolita'

Designed as a memoir based around a class of western classics, "Reading Lolita in Tehran" is founded on an interesting premise. Part literary criticism, part memoir of life behind the veil in the repressive environment of Iran, the book follows Azar Nafisi through the Islamic Revolution and its aftermath. After becoming fed up with the regime's stifling of progressive academic thought, she fled first her teaching post, then the country. \nNafisi left Iran for an education and returned to teach Western literature at University of Tehran. While she returned to a country that was one of the most progressive in the world regarding women's rights, a dark cloud was looming on the horizon. The formerly progressive nation of Iran transformed seemingly overnight to the harsh Islamic Republic of Iran. Gone for Nafisi and her female students were most of the freedoms they once enjoyed. No longer allowed to appear in public unveiled or drive cars, soon the women found more fundamental rights at risk. Step by step the Islamic regime worked to remove all influences of the decadent West -- which meant many of the books beloved by Nafisi and her female students. \nNafisi resigned from the University of Tehran in 1995 after refusing to submit to the mandatory veil. She never stopped teaching, however, and began convening a covert class in her apartment to discuss the forbidden works of Western masters to seven of her dedicated female students. If they were caught by Iran's morality police or turned in by suspicious neighbors they would have faced jail time -- if they were lucky. However, they bravely defied the repressive laws to explore their love of literature.\nThis class of women convened for the two years in between Nafisi's resignation and her emigration from Iran. In these years they discussed the works of Austen, Nabokov and James freely, without censors and radicals preaching against the works. This discussion of literature is the core of the book, with the women dreaming of being as free as those trapped in the pages of their books.\nWhile "Reading Lolita in Tehran" is founded on an interesting premise, it does not deliver in the way it could. Occasionally it does offer insight into the plight of the Iranian women, but, as a privileged woman who could afford to quit her job for strictly moral reasons, Nafisi cannot offer a view into the life of the average Iranian woman. \nNafisi also has the unsettling habit of preaching to the reader. Nobody will deny that the Islamic Republic of Iran enforced capricious laws with little method behind them. Her comparison of the regime to Nabakov's masterpieces is apt, but overused and overemphasized. Nafisi offered herself her best criticism: "Perhaps I am too much of an academic: I have written too many papers and articles to be able to turn my experiences and ideas into a narrative without pontificating."\nI left "Reading Lolita in Tehran" disappointed. While Nafisi offers an enlightened insight into the works of some of the West's literary masters, the book spends most of its time comparing these works to the Islamic regime while giving the women she taught only a cursory glance -- and these women's stories are, Nafisi claims, just as important as the literature they read. If you have a particular interest in literature criticism written from a perspective different than the ordinary, certainly pick up "Reading Lolita in Tehran." I will stick with the classics instead.\n"Reading Lolita in Tehran" is available on www.amazon.com \nfor $9.76.