Journey from the Land of No

Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran, by Roya Hakakian (2004)

The last few years have seen a number of accounts of life in Iran around the time of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. All of these memoirs view the events of that tumultuous period from a unique perspective. Azar Nafisi describes the crackdown at universities and the challenges of teaching Western literature to her students in Reading Lolita in Tehran. In Even After All This Time, Afschineh Latifi writes about her escape from and eventual return to Iran. Journey from the Land of No details the experiences of a young girl and her family before and after the reign of the U.S.-backed Shah.

Hakakian was born into a Jewish family 12 years before the revolution. Even as a young child, Roya is challenged by her poet father and her talented older brothers to think for herself. The reader follows the author as she becomes more aware of the world around her and discovers what it means to be a religious minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim country.

The author shares a number of newfound insights, such as when she learns that she cannot replace a young boy as song leader in her synagogue because she is a girl. Other scenes, such as the first time she finds a swastika scrawled beside a line of street graffiti, are truly chilling. Each chapter brings new tensions, along with increasing evidence that society has become increasingly hostile toward Jews and women in general.

A radical interpretation of Islamic law becomes the new order in Iran at a time when the war with Iraq is in full force. Writes Hakakian, “With hundreds of thousands killed in the war, grief and vengeance were the only feelings the public could safely express, all that we felt anyway. With every street renamed, the city's grid had become a map of morbidity, pointing to doom in all directions. Every address was an intersection of death and an ayatollah.”

Of the three books mentioned in this review, Journey is the most accessible, which is not to say that the writing is inadequate to the task. Hakakian is an accomplished storyteller who has produced an absorbing account of her youth. Readers will find themselves pulling for young Roya and wanting to read more about her transit to America. Highly recommended.

A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country, by Kurt Vonnegut (2005) [audio book edition, read by Norman Dietz]

Vonnegut's latest book took five years to write and while it might not be coming as quickly as it once did, the author still has good stuff.

Part memoir, part stand-up routine, part political diatribe, this is a book readers will love or hate. Vonnegut pays homage to his roots as a humanist and a socialist. He worships the likes of Eugene Debs, once Socialist Party candidate for President, who hails from his home state of Indiana. Contrasting Karl Marx's passion for workers' rights with the U.S. policy of legalized slavery he asks the question: "Who do you imagine was more pleasing in the eyes of a merciful God back then, Karl Marx or the United States of America?"

The first three-quarters of the book is classic Vonnegut: contemplative at one moment and gut-busting funny a page later. Referring to the U.S. Surgeon General's warnings on packs of cigarettes, the author declares his intention to sue the Brown & Williamson tobacco company for not following through on its promise to kill him. "I am now eighty-two," he writes. "Thanks a lot, you dirty rats. The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful men on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon."

Some of the last pages veer more toward his angry side, at times featuring liberal use of the f-bomb. At a few points I found it just a bit tiresome as he sounded more of a curmudgeon. Still, a large chunk of this book is right on good stuff. And when Vonnegut's giving you his best, it's really magic.

Love him or hate him, Vonnegut is a cultural icon who brings his unique take on life, love and politics one more time.

Originally reviewed 1/9/06