The Peace within, the Strife Without
“Books were the closest thing she had to home.”
This sentence encompasses a philosophy that appeals to many bibliophiles. So Amineh’s inner struggle to reconcile her life of books and the complication of real life will appeal to any introvert who may prefer the world on the page rather than the outer life of reality.
Set in the 1970s Iran, the novel plunges us into the rise of religious fundamentalism that is turning to murderous totalitarianism. People are muttering that the shah is seizing power that he shouldn’t be allowed to have, that a constitutional democracy with independent institutions is preferable. Apparently, the shah is a monarch of sorts and shouldn’t be involved in government. However, people state that his replacement should be the Ayatollah Khomeini; from the viewpoint of the future, we know they are trading one dictator for another.
Amineh’s friend Ava is an extrovert who wants to oppose the rising dictatorship that has claimed the life of a friend. Amineh would prefer not to make waves, especially since her books speak to her of a life gone by, one steeped in poetry, sweet-smelling flora and inner beauty. The chapter hints that she will be pulled into Ava’s struggle whether she likes it or not.
The writing flows from the lyric to the practical. We sail backward in time to when the rose farm Amineh grew up on is passed into the arms of a cousin and her well-meaning but intransigent grandmother tries to arrange a marriage but dies before it can be managed. In the present time, Amineh is fretting about an older man who hasn’t called her while Ava states nonchalantly that he’s a rich man who’d be a perfect husband. Amineh’s mother wanted her to go to university before marriage, a radical thought for a woman of that time.
So we realize that Amineh’s life and ideas are teetering on a edge. Will she be a traditionalist or a rebel? These opening chapters pose this question without being heavy handed about its message. It’s a tantalizing peek into another culture and another time, when change was accompanied by the threat of violence, bloodshed and death.
This sentence encompasses a philosophy that appeals to many bibliophiles. So Amineh’s inner struggle to reconcile her life of books and the complication of real life will appeal to any introvert who may prefer the world on the page rather than the outer life of reality.
Set in the 1970s Iran, the novel plunges us into the rise of religious fundamentalism that is turning to murderous totalitarianism. People are muttering that the shah is seizing power that he shouldn’t be allowed to have, that a constitutional democracy with independent institutions is preferable. Apparently, the shah is a monarch of sorts and shouldn’t be involved in government. However, people state that his replacement should be the Ayatollah Khomeini; from the viewpoint of the future, we know they are trading one dictator for another.
Amineh’s friend Ava is an extrovert who wants to oppose the rising dictatorship that has claimed the life of a friend. Amineh would prefer not to make waves, especially since her books speak to her of a life gone by, one steeped in poetry, sweet-smelling flora and inner beauty. The chapter hints that she will be pulled into Ava’s struggle whether she likes it or not.
The writing flows from the lyric to the practical. We sail backward in time to when the rose farm Amineh grew up on is passed into the arms of a cousin and her well-meaning but intransigent grandmother tries to arrange a marriage but dies before it can be managed. In the present time, Amineh is fretting about an older man who hasn’t called her while Ava states nonchalantly that he’s a rich man who’d be a perfect husband. Amineh’s mother wanted her to go to university before marriage, a radical thought for a woman of that time.
So we realize that Amineh’s life and ideas are teetering on a edge. Will she be a traditionalist or a rebel? These opening chapters pose this question without being heavy handed about its message. It’s a tantalizing peek into another culture and another time, when change was accompanied by the threat of violence, bloodshed and death.