Salar Abdoh

An Iranian journalist, Saleh, ends up at the front lines of the war in Iraq and Syria - repeatedly. Despite the fact that he is actually an art critic - in the craziness that was ISIS, such details did not matter much. In between his trips there, he deals with the backstabbing world of journalism (and censorship) in Tehran. The story weaves between the two - the peaceful Tehran and the martyrdom at the border cannot offer a bigger contrast on paper. Except that reality is a lot more complicated.

The novel is not the usual story of a reporter at war - these had been done. But then this war was not really like any other. Saleh chooses his own path more often than not and ends up part of a war that noone seems to believe in anymore. It is a cynical take on what was happening there but it also rings true.

I would have called the novel absurd but its sheer absurdity in places makes it sound real - from the old painter who wants to die and ends up in Samarra to the guy who goes to war with Proust in his backpack, from the state interrogator who starts quoting Proust to the marriage proposal that comes to late, from fighters citing Arabic poetry to a French man with a death wish - it all makes sense in a weird sort of way.

The style takes awhile to get used to - the prose switches between almost lyrical to almost crude and back and just like the style, the story itself jumps between times and people. The story is also full of Persian philosophy and regional history - and I suspect I missed some of it - the text assumes you already know it. That makes some part read dryer than they would read to someone who recognizes the references but they are as important as the war itself for what really is happening over there.

It wasn't always an easy novel to read but if you are in the mood for a war novel, give this one a try.… (más)

The politics of a thriller...evil done by good people, bad ones not so much redeemed as explained, Systems always, always regressing to the mean...the pace of a literary novel...we open in New York where a college professor begins speaking...and the domestic concerns of "women's fiction" as family, both born and made, center the action of the entire story.

When Professor Reza, an American emigrant, hears from his childhood friend Sina with an urgent request to return to Iran, he dithers briefly but acquiesces. This sets in motion family reunions, with Reza's long-lost mother; endings for others, Sina's mother suffers a shocking (to me) betrayal; and the end of a lot of comfortable lives in service of rooting through the mucky, sinful past for nuggets of Truth.

No Honor is to be found, though. Nothing comes out of the past unsullied. Reza, leaving New York and a comfortable life, bargained a lot away for the chance to find a few brummagem gauds that I wouldn't dignify with the name "facts," simply "data points."

An incontrovertible fact I *did* glean, and felt richer for knowing, was the existence of a sizable Polish refugee community in Tehran. They fled the USSR (for obvious reasons) and fetched up in this distant place, welcomed and settled. I was deeply heartened by their lifetime's-worth of respite in a place I don't associate with refuge. Or generosity of spirit.

What the read offered to me was a set of characters I recognized, and could invest in; a series of interwoven stories (except the Polish refugees one, that doesn't fit well) that resonate with and enhance each other; and a bittersweet ending that, like actual life, isn't tidy but is fruitful.… (más)

An exciting war story that is also darkly comedic. It is about an Iranian journalist fighting an unidentified enemy in Syria and Iraq who struggles to make find his balance in an uncertain and dangerous world.

The short book is also a comic novel about Iranian life--the writer is Iranian and lives in both Iran and the U.S. where he teaches at NYU.

I felt at a disadvantage in not knowing more about Iranian life and culture. I had to accept the portrait of Iranian culture as presented by the author. I understood the book as showing the struggles of an intellectual in an anti-intellectual world. The protagonist is a dreamer (A struggle with which I can identify; although my society does not—yet—punish intellectuals, there is certainly an environment that is unsympathetic to what it considers, disparagingly, “elites”). I also found the shifting perspectives difficult to keep straight so I was frequently confused.

What I understood, I enjoyed. While brief, the book provides a great deal to think about. I enjoyed the intellectual content as well as the humor. However, I did find reading it such a challenge I almost gave up several times.

On the whole, I felt it was worth reading but I hope his next novel is both more accessible and gives greater context for those of us without extensive knowledge of Iran.

I received this book through Library.Thing.… (más)

This collection of fifteen short stories by Iranian authors may not always be easy to read, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that Tehran Noir is not only a solid collection of crime stories, but it's also an illuminating depiction of day-to-day life in Iran complete with its religious, political, and racial tensions.

In Iran, the number thirteen is considered to be so unlucky that if that's your house number, it's shown as 12+1. Political tensions run so high that, if your loved one dies on the wrong side of the border, you can hire a "corpse fixer" to find the body and bring it to you for a proper burial. Afghans and Armenians are Iranians' choice for menial jobs, and the participants in a woman's stoning take photos with their cell phones in between sessions of rock-throwing.

The stories also show us a bank robbery and what led to it; Qesas, the brutal "eye for an eye" of Islamic law; two men in love with the same woman; investigative reporters; and what mothers will do to protect their children.

This is a culture that's very different from my comfortable existence here in the United States. I enjoy the Akashic Noir series because I love crime fiction, and there are plenty of solid crime-fueled stories to be found here, but what I've also found to be true is that the series also provides a look into other cultures, other customs, other points of view. This added insight is worth its weight in gold, above and beyond the talent shown in the collected short stories.… (más)