Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Please share your thoughts about The Septembers of Shiraz in here .

Who is going to read this book ?

I am going to order this book, but I don't expect it to arrive until September (maybe that's appropriate :) )

No problem :)

I have very recently finished this book. It definitely held my interest to find out what would happen. There was not so much about Shiraz. I don't want to give any part of the story away for others who are still reading or hope to read in future. It was suspenseful and I found myself hoping all would end well for Isaac, Farnaz and others, but the characters seemed a bit underdeveloped and shallow. The author tried to explore class, religious, urban/rural differences etc., but I'm not sure she was completely successful. What do others think? I have not seen the film. Perhaps others who have can say how well the film presented the story. I am currently reading another book set in Iran describing roughly the same time period. I am enjoying this one much more so far: Disoriental by Négar Djavadi.

I've just started this book.

The pace seems languid. Although the events so far are somewhat catastrophic, they seem to be unfolding with a sense of boredom and predictability, as though summary arrests, interrogations, disappearances are simply mundane, blending into a dismal background of similar events (not unlike incidents of hate speech, racist violence, nationalist and homophobic demonstrations etc becoming increasingly banal, without becoming less disturbing, during the recentish ascent of neo-Nazism and right wing populism in Europe).

Like in most of the literature I've read dealing with the period (and like most literature, come to think of it!), it seems the perspective here is privileged and middle class. I would expect familiar ground, but the protagonist is Jewish which adds another layer of interest - clearly an unusual perspective on Iranian social history (something I've heard (used to live with an Iranian family) and read about quite a lot by now) and I'm looking forward to finding out how this influences the narrative.

Sometimes when I read several books set in the same place and time period everything becomes a blur and in my memory I mix up which characters and events were in each book. I did not want this to happen reading this book of TheRooftops of Tehran because I had just read The Stationery Shop.
I might still read both of them at a later date.

My reading is a mess right now , I have copies of both books " The Septembers of Shiraz" and "rooftops of Tehran " but I am really not sure if or when I will read any of them :(

Fortunately we keep our discussions open :)

I am in the same situation. I thought I had a copy of September’s of Shiraz but I can’t find it and now I’m in the middle of so much. Don’t want you to think I am no longer participating. I will be here at some point!

I've finished the book and I'll try to write a review soon.

The title is not a description of the topic of the book, but it functions as an evocation of the nostalgia that is perhaps, despite all the drama, the story's primary emotion.

As I hoped, there was a lot of interesting material relating to Jewishness but I couldn't get a sense of any cohesive Jewish community as such in Iran, only how Jews might be treated by non-Jews including representatives of the state. The strand in New York City (actually my favourite) was much more interesting in this regard, but I didn't quite get why it was included... maybe hinting at possible futures for the family or Iranian Jews. Overall the narrative felt quite loosely held together, treating its themes lightly. This is often something I appreciate and it helps to involve me in thinking through the characters. There were only a few characters I actually liked though! Just Zalman and Rachel, from the Orthodox family in NYC. I think I might be coming to this book at the wrong moment, when I'm inclined not to sympathise with the desire for luxury.

Thanks Zanna for sharing and sorry for my late reply , I wanted to read this book specially after The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World but I could not find myself in the mood for it , as I have been very busy lately I find myself going for light reads .