The last book of 2007
Monday, December 31, 2007
Persian Girls
Nahid Rachlin
2006
288 pages
First, I just have to say…this book has the most gorgeous cover. I love the cover art, and the shade of purple that is used for both the background and the back cover. However, I didn’t buy this one for its cover. I bought it because it made so many people’s list of favorites. And I’m glad I did (buy it). This was a great book to end the year with.
Persian Girls is a work of non-fiction, although it reads more like a novel. It is the story of Nahid and Pari, their childhood and the different paths their lives take. Nahid was born in the 1950’s into a wealthy Iranian family. Her mother gave her to her childless sister Maryam to raise, a practice that was not uncommon. Nahid lived with her aunt, who she considered her mother, until she was 9. At that time, her father reclaimed her, a decision that brought much grief to all of the women. With the exception of her beloved older sister Pari, Nahid never did feel like part of the family she was forced to live with.
Nahid and Pari both loved America. Nahid dreamt of following her older brothers footsteps and going to college in America; Pari wanted to be an actress. Unfortunately, their parents were still traditional enough to want arranged marriages for both girls. Pari was maneuvered into marriage to a man she does not love, while Nahid eventually convinced her father to let her go to America.
As Nahid finished college and established a life for herself in America, Pari remained in Iran, becoming increasingly unhappy with her confining life. After many years, she died after falling down a flight of stairs. Nahid traveled back to Iran seeking answers about her sister’s death, but was only left with more questions. Eventually, she decided to confront her past and the result is this book, which explores her own childhood and journey to America, contrasting it with the unhappy life her sister was forced to live in Iran.
One thing that really struck me about Nahid’s tale was how she always bitterly regrets her father kidnapping her away from Maryam and forcing her into a family where she feels like an unwanted outsider. However, the friendship she forges with Pari opens her eyes to America. And her father is the one who allows her to leave and go to college in America. So even though her father causes the greatest unhappiness in her life, he is also the one who sets in motion the path to her present life. She alludes to this at the end of the book, and the irony stuck with me.
This is also a fantastic book for learning a little about the politics of modern Iran. The author intersperses her story with some history lessons. As I mentioned before, this reads like fiction, so both the story and the history are easy to read; I never felt like I was reading a dry history text. Thank goodness, because I’ve been there done that and it’s not happening again.
2. I'm on page 207 of 272.
First off, the back of the book does a crap job of explaining this book. Not that I'll do much better, but still. It says it's a book about Madeline, a young wife who is in a bicycle accident and regresses to the state of about a six year old. Her husband and his new wife care for Madeline for the rest of their lives.
Yes, it was cold. I had on long johns (top and bottom), jeans, a turtleneck, a turtleneck sweater, a vest, a jacket, socks, footwarmers (which didn't do squat), boots, gloves, handwarmers, mittens, two scarves, earmuffs, a hat, and a cheesehead.
And so was the rest of Green Bay.
Attendance was 70, 800+ fans. And I'd be willing to bet they are the nicest group of 70,800+ people to crowd into a stadium. In this case, crowding is good, because it helps to counter the wind chill. Right before the game started the sun came out. Woo-hoo! It didn't do anything, but it boosted morale. An hour later it was gone and we saw honest to goodness snowflakes. They were quite pretty, you could even see the flake design. But at that point the camera batteries were dead. Which is okay, because it's really difficutl to take pictures with your mittens on.
And here's Favre (the Green Bay quarterback, for all you football neophytes). He's #4.
And here's is where the team came out for the game. Go Pack Go! (Yes, I chanted that during the game...we were instructed to leave our inside voices at home).
Hold onto your cheesehead! I had mine knocked off a few times.
And you see the ref. And you take his picture, too.
And then you go on the tour, where you get to see the stadium from a fancy dancy sky box.
And then you get to walk through the tunnel and onto the field. Which was cold.
We walked through it to get to our plane. With no warning, they announced boarding, took our tickets, and sent us through a door, down some stairs, and out into snow. Okay, so the stuff on the ground was pretty much melted. But there was more falling from the sky. And it wasn't a short walk. By the time I got to the plane it was snowing in my ear. Seriously...the wind was blowing little fluffy flakes into my ear while I was waiting to get on the plane. There's a sentence I never thought I would type.
See the pictures? Adrienne took those.
Unlike me, she has talent with a camera.
Adrienne made a collage representing a tour of her town. She wrote out an explanation of what she chose, and taped it onto the yellow pages. And included a page from the phone book with the listing for my last name. The collage includes a picture of her spinning on the beach, a receipt from a yummy sounding Cuban meal that she had, a matchbook from one of the many strip clubs in Tampa, grass from the Buccaneer's stadium, and a crumbled cigar.
So...many thanks to 
