Azar Nafisi’s The Republic of Imagination is one of those not quite this not quite that sorts of books. By that I mean it is memoir but it isn’t and it is literary criticism but it isn’t. Sometimes it is more one than the other but throughout the personal is blended in with the literary. If you have read Reading Lolita in Tehran you will have an idea of what I mean. Only in this book, Nafisi talks much more in depth about the books.
Nafisi became an American citizen in 2008. I was surprised to learn she attended university in the United States, the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. There she studied literature. She left her job teaching literature in Tehran in 1995 because she no longer felt she could teach it properly without attracting too much attention from the authorities. She remained in Tehran until 1997.
Republic of Imagination was inspired by a question she had from an earnest young Iranian man at a reading she gave in Seattle. He told her that Americans didn’t care about books and literature, that in Iran they cared much more and didn’t she feel she was wasting her time talking to people about literature? Nafisi of course disagreed and this book is her answer.
Nafisi focuses on three American novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Babbit by Sinclair Lewis, and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers with an epilogue in which she discusses the work of James Baldwin. She examines what each book says about the American character and mindset and why the book is important still. Into her examination of each of the novels she weaves personal stories about friends, attending university in Oklahoma, Iran. Some of her personal stories fit better with the book under discussion than others but they are all interesting even when there is a disconnect.
The chapter on Huck Finn is by far the longest, taking up nearly half the book. Nafisi is very attached to Huck and Mark Twain but she goes on far too long. Perhaps it is because she used to discuss Twain with a dear friend who died from cancer. Perhaps it is also because at the time she was planning on writing an entire book on Twain and Huckleberry Finn. As interesting as her discussion was, however, I felt myself drifting off about two-thirds of the way through the chapter, wondering what more she could possibly say that she hadn’t already and wishing we could just move on to the next book. Once she does move on, the pace picks up again.
As much as I enjoyed Republic of Imagination, and I did enjoy it very much, I don’t think Nafisi managed to provide a very good response to the Iranian man. If her intent was to prove the importance of literature to Americans, she failed completely. She does succeed in arguing that American literature has some important things to say and that it very often connects directly to real life.
Nafisi is clearly a woman who is passionate about books and literature and wants to share that passion with others. The book often reads like a conversation, though it sometimes veers into lecture. I can imagine sitting in a cafe with her talking books, her leaning forward and eagerly asking, oh what did you think about this part? and drinking way too much coffee in an attempt to keep up with her energy and leaps of thought. Not a bad book, not a great book but a good book, a very enjoyable book that makes you happy to be a reader.
It sounds like her first book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, was much better. It’s the story of a group of her students who met to discuss the books they were reading when it was forbidden to read Western literature in Iran. They read the works of Nabokov, James, Jane Austen and Fitzgerald’s Gatsby. Above all they met in secret. Their act of rebellion could have landed them in jail or worse, had they been found.
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Richard, it is definitely similar to her first book but in this one she does actual in depth analysis of the books in question. There are also more stories instead of the single one that carries through the first book. If you like Reading Lolita, you will probably like this one.
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I got the book a couple of days ago…have yet to read it. I loved Reading Lolita in Tehran, but that was in another lifetime….So I am really looking forward to reading her again and understand if the impressions still hold true!
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cirtnecce, I hope you enjoy the book. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!
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It sounds interesting to me, but I wonder how much I would be able to appreciate, since I haven’t read Babbit and a third of the book is about that? But I’m very fond of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and of course Huck Finn from schooldays, so perhaps I will try it and see.
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It is a book I would pick up if I saw it but it looks like one of those efforts that doesn’t quite make it and that’s a pity. I think the question about the importance of literature in America is a fascinating one because the country has produced a dazzling literature despite books and writers perhaps meaning less in a commercial democracy. The real sadness seems to me the indifference shown by Americans- and British readers too- to other literatures. Her choices of writers to discuss are , perhaps with the exception of Lewis, ones that connect with readers throughout the world.
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Ian, it is not a book I would have sought either but I was offered a copy for review so I said sure, why not. She does a great job choosing the three books and taking about why they are important and how they reflect American society and ideals and how what they have to say is as important as ever. What is really interesting is how seriously she and her Iranian friends read American literature, how stimulating and thought-provoking they find it when, as you say, American and even British readers are so often indifferent. I feel like I am a good reader but there were moments when I was a bit chagrined because I couldn’t match her enthusiasm.
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Jeane, I have not read Babbit or Heart is a Lonely Hunter and I still enjoyed the book very much. She does discussion and criticism in such a way that you don;t feel lost is you have not read the book she is talking about. I can say that I now very much want to read both McCullers and Lewis!
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I really enjoyed Reading Lolita in Tehran, but I’m not sure I’m that eager to give this a read now! I will be very interested to see what she does next though – Azar Nafisi is such an interesting woman.
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widget, Nafisi is a very interesting woman and this is not a bad book at all. It has lots of stories instead of the single one that weaves through Reading Lolita so sometimes it feels jumpy and a tiny bit repetitive since some of the stories overlap a bit. After reading the book I very much want to read Babbit and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and wonder how I ever missed them to begin with. 🙂
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Because I’m of Iranian descent, and because I really enjoyed her previous two books, I’ll definitely try this one next year. I say next year because all of a sudden I’ve got a GAZILLION books to read (coming in on library holds) and I know I won’t get through them until January at least! 🙂
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Laila, I know how it goes with those library holds! I am “suffering” under a deluge of them at the moment too! Enjoy them and I hope when you do read Nafisi, you enjoy that too!
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Your final assessment is pretty much how I felt about Reading Lolita, but I am delighted to hear of the existence of this book as I would definitely read her again on that basis. I love books about books in most forms and this sounds intriguing, though I can well imagine it would be hard to analyse a national character or a love of literature based on three books. But hey! Always worth a try! 🙂
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Litlove, yes, I felt the same about her first book too! I also love books about books. They are like reader catnip 🙂 She doesn’t do a bad job on analyzing a national character, or rather aspects of. It’s the love of literature part that was left unclear. But as you say, worth a try! 🙂
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I tried reading her first book and as you say it was sort of one thing and sort of another and I had, at that time, a hard time settling down with it. I would still like to read something by her (I think she has another memoir out as well?–or am I thinking of someone else?). Maybe at the time I felt like I had not read enough of the book she was discussing, but if that puts me off books like this–I will never get them read (since I seem to meander so much in my reading as it is).
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Danielle, I think her second book was a memoir about growing up in Iran. I have not read that one. I’ve only read Huck Finn but she made me really want to read the other books she talks about. And it is nice because she talks about them in a way that doesn’t require you know the story but you still feel like you gain a good understanding about the book and what she is saying about it. I’m not quite sure how she managed that but it is pretty impressive really.
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