This month's book club selection was one I had heard about but never really had on my own personal reading list. It was nothing like I expected. It's part literary criticism, part Iran history book and part memoir. I never thought much about life in Iran or what daily life must be like in a country ruled by Islamic militants. I don't think about what it would be like to live through the transition from a more liberal rule to a more militant one. In some ways, I like to pretend that it doesn't happen - that people aren't so cruel.
I know I live in freedom, but I don't think about all the ways I am free. Free to think, free to act, free to talk to strangers on the street, free to work at home or in the office, free to wear the clothes I want, free to travel, free to learn, free to read, free from fear. This book makes me appreciate what I do have.
On the other hand, it also made me miss one of the things that I don't have - discussions about books that go beyond the superficial, "I liked it." Discussions that are all about one particular passage or ones that compare the heroine in one book to the heroine in another book. Discussions that talk about the parallels between the book and current events, the role of women in society vs. books, the role of men. It made me want to read Nabokov, James, Austen. But it also made me feel like I would be missing something to just read them alone and not discuss them. Maybe I need to find my own literature class - not just a book group.
Since it is borrowed, this book will go back. Otherwise, it would go on the shelf. I could see rereading sections - at least as I tackle those classics.
2 comments:
I keep joining book clubs for just that reason, for the discussions. I'm in four now. None of them are perfect but I don't know what perfection would be.
At this point, I'd just be happy if people actually finished the book. It's getting hard to discuss a book when half the people haven't read the ending and the ones who have are afraid of giving it away!
Post a Comment