Helpful Score: 1
A compelling memoir about growing up in Iran and two lives shaped by different cultures and times.
Helpful Score: 1
Although subtitled a memoir, Persian Girls is really a tribute to the author's older sister Pari. Both girls want to resist traditional gender roles in pre-revolutionary Iran, but Pari is married off to a suitor her parents chose; Nahid escapes this fate by going to study in America. Pari remains unhappy, and her mysterious death from falling down a flight of stairs sends Nahid back, now to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although I learned a bit more about growing up during the days of the Shah, the prose didn't jump off the page. The story was told, as opposed to shown, to the reader; much of it predictable and in simple language. However, it does provide a glimpse of another culture.
This was such a beautifully written memoir.
I really wish that her sister Pari had not passed and that she would have got to see her son. When I looked at her picture I felt that she really did have the look of an actress.
I could feel the warmth and comfort of her "mother's" home. She describes everything with so much feeling.
It is a little sad that she didn't teach her own daughter anything about her culture and how to speak Farsi. I understand why she didn't though. I'm sure she would have loved more than anything to take her daughter to see their family and friends in Iran.
I really wish that her sister Pari had not passed and that she would have got to see her son. When I looked at her picture I felt that she really did have the look of an actress.
I could feel the warmth and comfort of her "mother's" home. She describes everything with so much feeling.
It is a little sad that she didn't teach her own daughter anything about her culture and how to speak Farsi. I understand why she didn't though. I'm sure she would have loved more than anything to take her daughter to see their family and friends in Iran.