Book Summary (from the
back of the book)
A pitch black, rainy night in a small Iranian
town. Inside his house, the colonel stared at the portrait of the famous
military hero –The Colonel, long executed. He thinks of his own children, one
of whom died supporting the Shah, another of whom fought for the Ayatollah, another
of whom -his fourteen-year old daughter- has been captured handing out leaflets
against the regime. The Colonel has fought against the British…he fought for
the Shah… he fought for the Ayatollah…he’s dedicated his life to his country…the
house is quiet.
Could they really be coming…for him?
My Review
On July this year I read this piece in the New York Times, and it led me to really want to read this book. I have a
couple of Iranian friends, and one of them told me that the author was really
known for his work. So I bought it, and I read it, and here I am having mixed
feelings about this book. Deep down I think it was a really good book…but…well,
let me tell you about it.
The book starts in a third person’s voice: an
old Iranian colonel is in his house, is a dark rainy night and someone is at
this door. He is afraid, but knows he has to answer. Then it changes to his own
voice, he remembers, he wonders, he is afraid for his son who is hiding in the
basement. We will follow the colonel for a couple of days (I think it is
supposed to be 2 or 3 at most) and we will learn about how the revolution
dismembered his family. Although the colonel is supposed to be the main
character, his son Amir and a secret police officer, Khezr Javid will have a
very important role through the whole story.
My first problem with the book is the fact that
the change of voice is not only from third to first with the colonel. All of
the sudden someone else is talking in first person, maybe Amir, maybe someone
else, but there is no transition, so a lot of times I kept going back in the
pages to try to understand who was speaking to me.
There is also a lot of notes. Although this is
not a problem, sometimes this would just cut the flow of the story even more, especially
when in a single page you have to go to the back of the book 4 times to
understand the meaning behind the sentence you are reading. My friend tells me this is typical of Iranian
writing, a lot of hidden meaning in the words, and I think is a beautiful idea,
is just that it made it even harder for me to see the whole story.
But there were a couple of parts that I was
able to grasp the beauty of the sentence without any notes:
The colonel had begun to think that the strangest things could happen
in life, and that mankind had been created to go through life in a string of
bizarre experiences, then to die with its eyes wide open in amazement, proud of
never having shocked by anything.
Personally, I think that’s a beautiful
description of how unpredictable life can be. On how people confront their
problems:
People who are drowning in a sea of problems
and have lost all sense of self-worth often grasp at egotism and alienation
from everything outside themselves as their only point of fixity and this can
help anchor and fortify them.
And finally on young minds:
But no-one has the right to undermine or
obstruct the hopes and aspirations of the young on the basis of one’s own
experience.
So, you see, the book did make me think. It did
give me a different view of the Iranian revolution, so deep down I know is a good
book. But I fear so much was lost in translation for me, although the
translator adds a lot of explanations and context at the end of the book. Is one of those books that you know you could
like…but it just didn’t happen.
