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‘Reading Lolita’ author breaks silence of her memories

Readers entranced by Azar Nafisi’s “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” her 2003 memoir about literature and intellectual freedom in Iran, will be equally fascinated by her new memoir, “Things I’ve Been Silent About: Memories.”

Like “Reading Lolita,” Nafisi’s new book is about her beloved homeland and the impact of history, culture and current events on the author’s life and that of her fellow Iranians.

But “Things I’ve Been Silent About” goes beyond these touchstones to expose the highly volatile and enormously debilitating relationship Nafisi had as a child and a young woman with her tempestuous mother. Her writing captures the palpable loneliness and sorrow she experiences as a result of the wall of anger and hostility her mother set between them.

The memoir’s historical parameters stretch from the life of Nafisi’s grandmother at the beginning of the 20th century to the birth of Nafisi’s daughter at the century’s end. Throughout that memorable journey, Nafisi allows the history of Iran to play out through its political upheavals.

The participants in this remarkable rendering of history include members of Nafisi’s family: Her father became mayor of Tehran in 1961, and her mother was elected to the Iranian parliament in 1963.

The more infamous historical players and events include the reign of Iran’s last monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, until his ouster in 1979. Nafisi, living in America during the last years of the shah’s rule, was among the anti-monarchy protesters on hand when he visited Washington, D.C., in 1977.

Also recounted: the gathering of power by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the return of fundamentalism to Iran.

Nafisi’s gripping memories are a sober reminder of present-day political upheaval and human rights abuses around the globe.

She aptly writes: “The fragility of our mundane existence, the ease with which all that you call home, all that gives you an identity, a sense of self and belonging, ”can“ be taken away from you.”