While shopping in the Kindle store, a title caught my attention and, on impulse, I bought the book. Iran is in the news daily as tensions increase. I remember well in the late seventies the turmoil that went on in that country and I thought it would be interesting to educate myself a bit more on some of the more recent history of that country. The author, Anthony Roberts, grew up in Iran during the last days of the Shah, when Americans were welcome and were indeed manipulating the country for their own purposes. It was a westernized nation, but seething beneath the surface was Islamic fanaticism led by the Ayatollah Khomeini and a national pride that wanted to see America, the great Satan, ousted.
The book reads like it was written by two different authors. When talking about the country and its people, the story takes on an elegance and respect that is interesting and rewarding. When it gets into the characters and their shenanigans, it takes on a dirty and profane tone and is over the top. Oh, that one could rip out pages on a Kindle download!
The story is about a teen aged boy who spent his final high school years in Iran and became best friends with his next door neighbour, the son of the head of the Iranian secret police, a cruel defender of the Shah's regime, but a wonderful, loving family man also. Life in Tehran deteriorates and each family eventually meets their own fate when, in 1979, the revolution succeeded in ousting the Shah.
What I came away with was a better understanding of what I set out to find, the background to the turmoil in Iran. As it turned out, it could have been done nicely without the added characters and plot that made me cringe a little too often.
Don't bother reading it.
No comments:
Post a Comment