Read Dangerously

June 1, 2022

In this illuminating, deeply affecting work, Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran) compellingly argues that literature can bring people together across the political divide. Presented as a series of letters written to her late father--a construct all the more moving in the audio version since the author serves as the narrator--Nafisi discusses important, sometimes divisive texts written by the likes of Salman Rushdie, Zora Neale Hurston, Elias Khouri, Margaret Atwood, and James Baldwin. Nafisi weaves in her own experiences and those of her friends and family, who have lived under Iranian authoritarian regimes before and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. She shares many of her father's experiences as a mayor of Tehran; he was jailed in 1963 and held for four years on trumped-up charges from which he was later exonerated. Nafisi also discusses the prejudice, closed-mindedness, and authoritarianism she sees in "safe" democracies like the U.S. While some listeners might find the references to her father repetitive, Nafisi expertly pairs her family's experiences with the literature she is analyzing. VERDICT Most listeners will be inspired by this testament to the healing power of reading and writing.--Beth Farrell

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 29, 2021
“We need the truth that fiction offers us,” writes Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran) in this stunning look at the power of reading. Written from November 2019 through June 2020 as a series of letters to her late father, Nafisi’s reflections grapple with literature’s ability to counter oppression—as she writes, “Fiction subverts the absolutist mindset by defending the right of every individual to exercise their independence of mind and of heart.” Her close readings come in five sections: the first considers how Plato, Ray Bradbury, and Salman Rushdie all revealed the discomfort involved in seeking truth. Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison, meanwhile, created powerful heroines who reclaimed their own stories, while empathy and complexity suffuse Nafisi’s discussion of war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict via the works of David Grossman, Elliot Ackerman, and Elias Khouri. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is invoked in a discussion about the roles that “ordinary, often decent, people play in bringing about a totalitarian state,” and James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates offer lessons for coping with rage at racial injustice. Nafisi’s prose is razor-sharp, and her analysis lands on a hopeful note: “I really believe that books might not save us from death, but they help us live.” This excellent collection provokes and inspires at every turn.