HerStories

I’ve changed my list of 4 memoirs to review, and first up we have:

Things I’ve Been Silent About

By Azar Nafisi

Published by Random House, Dec 2008

ISBN 978-1-4000-6361-1

 

Growing up in a politically unstable and war torn country like Iran, with its civil and religious unrest and cruel political regimes dating back to the Persians – is not easy. Living with a family that spends more time making up stories and lies about their lives than telling the truth of how it really was – is not easy. Learning to find your voice and your place as an intelligent Middle Eastern woman from a history of oppression and suppression – is not easy. No, Growing, Living and Learning are not easy, but perhaps hardest of all is opening up and sharing with others the story of a life that, before its birth into a book, was only notes in a diary called, ‘Things I’ve Been Silent About’

Be sure to check out the full revised review of this magnificent book on the Story Circle Network Book Review site, soon to be found at: www.storycirclebookreviews.org

Memoir Challenge

Here I am coming up on the end of the first month in the “HerStories Challenge” and already I am challenged! I created my list of 4 with good intentions and indeed, I have now read two of the books on the list, which are: The Novel & A long way gone. Neither of these books will work for the challenge, darn it! The Novel is a fiction piece, not a memoir and the other, A long way gone, is a young man writing about his life as a boy in Africa.  Strike out – fiction; Strike out – boystory.  I am almost finished reading a great memoir from a New York Times bestselling author from Persia. (The following Photo compliments of Fotosearch.com)

Where is Persia, you ask? I had a Persian cat once!  It looked just like the picture above. Well, I have a good story about that:  even though I have done much research on the Middle East for my own memoir, I used to, not so many years ago, not know a whole lot about ‘Persia’. In the mid 1990′s, I had an employee working for me who was somewhat ‘private’ about her heritage. I knew she was from somewhere in the Middle East, but she would not talk about it to her co-workers. As her BOSS, I did privately engage her in conversation a few times to let her know I was open minded about the middle east, having lived there and having friends there. She would only tell me she was Persian. [She bore no resemblance to MY white Persian] But -Ah – HA! I had a lead. And once I looked it up, I understood her reticence in disclosing her nationality.

If you personally, right now, don’t know the history, I’m not giving it away – yet. Look for my post later today or tomorrow with my first 4 line review and maybe you will have your answer, if you haven’t looked it up by then. Isn’t the internet wonderful sometimes? [except for the pleas from Zimbabwe from a long lost relative that wants to pass on your inheritance if you will give them a credit card or bank information]