Reading Lolita in Tehran
I've just started to read it. 30 pages into the book, it is already clear to me that this would be one of the books that I will treasure forever.
This is a memoir. A resigned English literature teacher of a University in Iran held a private class in her living room with 7 female students. The first reason why I will love this book: this is a teacher that I always wish to have, a literature teacher who understands women. I love reading books since I was little, but somehow I don't have the intuitive sense of words, the appreciation of the beauty of the language itself, the thrill across one's spine when he uses an unusual word (maybe that's why I never love poems). I am not the one who can use "words that would end in an unexpected way, perhaps in some archaic letter, an upsilamba, becoming a bird or catapult with wondrous consequences". Thus it is so intriguing for me to read about the teacher discussed the meaning of the word "upsilamba" in NaboKov's "Invitation to a beheading". I also have to admit that a kind middle-aged female teacher puts me into ease.
The second reason that I will love this book: the seven girls. The image came to my mind of the women in Iran is a group of featureless people covered in black robes. I thought that the robes are their normal outwear, that there is nothing below except undies. In the book, when the girls arrived at the teacher’s house, they removed their robes and scarves, revealing their colorful T shirts and tight jeans and gold earrings. Ah, they are just like us! There was a girl nicknamed "the wild one", another one "the lady", and another one "the comedian". I love them. I want to be close to them, to observe them, to understand them.
( I will make up more reasons when the reading continues…)