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“The Persian Version”

Hitchens’ review of Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature. Hitchens points out that “Under the reign of the Shah, the country emulated almost everything Western except democracy; under the rule of the imams, it rejects almost every aspect of modernity except nuclearism.”

Even so, he argues that the attempts of the current regime to control all aspects of a person’s life (and thoughts) will fail due to the deeply rooted Persian heritage. He describes the new anthology by writing

“…the recent Strange Times, My Dear, an admirable PEN anthology of Iranian fiction and poetry released in paperback this spring. (The title echoes the refrain with which Ahmad Shamlu ends every stanza of ‘In This Blind Alley,’ his famous poem about the revolution.) Anyone wanting to sample the range and depth of the country’s contemporary writing would do well to begin here.”

Sounds good.

Hitchens also brings out attention to a few other promising book, Hakakian’s memoir Journey from the Land of No about growing up Jewish in Iran during the revolution. …and the satire by Pezeshkzad, My Uncle Napoleon.

And a great quote attributed to the great satirist Swift, “…we might remember that it was Swift who defined satire as a looking glass in which people discerned every face but their own.”

New learning: Napoleon thought of mud as a fifth element.

New word: abstemious = not self indulgent

The Anthology includes:

Prose

Introduction by Nahid Mozaffari

Prose: Part One

Mahmoud Dowlatabadi Excerpt from The Empty Place of Solouch The Mirror

Gholamhossein Saedi The Black Boxcar

Houshang Golshiri Victory Chronicle of the Magi

Ahmad Mahmoud Excerpt from Scorched Earth

Esmail Fassih Excerpt from Soraya in a Coma

Simin Daneshvar Ask the Migrating Birds

Hadi Khorsandi The Eyes Won't Take It

Nassim Khaksar The Grocer of Kharzeville

Iraj Pezeshkzad Delayed Consequences of the Revolution

Mahshid Amirshahi Excerpt from Mothers and Daughters (Vol. 3) Shahrbanou's Honeymoon

Taghi Modaressi Excerpt from the Book of Absent People

Prose: Part Two

Shahrnoush Parsipur Excerpts from Women Without Men

Moniru Ravanipur Satan's Stones Mohammad

Mohammad Ali Retirement

Reza Farokhfal Ah! Istanbul

Reza Daneshvar Mahboubeh and the Demon Ahl

Goli Taraghi   In Another Place

Behnam Dayani Hitchcock and Agha Baji

Farkhondeh Aghai A Little Secret 

Asghar Abdollahi A Room Full of Dust

Ghazaleh Alizadeh excerpt from The Trial

Zoya Pirzad Shells 

Seyyed Ebrahim Nabavi First Love

Prose: Part Three

Shahriyar Mandanipour Shatter the Stone Tooth

Farkhondeh Hajizadeh   Sohrab's Torment

Ghazi Rabihavi White Rock 

Akbar Sarduzami My Melancholy and the Role of Dog Shit 

Tahereh Alavi Heidegger and I 

Farideh Kheradmand Peace of Night

and POETRY from:

Introduction   Ahmad Karimi Hakkak

Ahmad Shamlu

Mehdi Akhavan Saless

Nader Naderpour

Yadollah Royai

Esmail Khoi

M.R. Shafii Kadkani

Sohrab Sepehri

Fereydoun Moshiri

Manuchehr Atashi

Ahmad Reza Ahmadi

Nosrat Rahmani

Ali Baba Chahi

Mansour Owji

Simin Behbahani

Houshang Ebtehaj

Mohammad Ali Sepanlu

Mohammad Hoghoughi

B. Jalali

Y.M. Amini

Sadat Eshkevari

Hormoz Alipour

Javad Mojabi

Bijan Najdi

Kamran Bozorgnia

Zia Movahed

Seyyed Ali Salehi

Mohammad Mokhtari

Massoud Ahmadi

Hafez Moussavi

Mina Assadi

Shams Langueroudi

Ziba Karbasi

Abbas Kiarostami