edited by Nahid Mozaffari & Ahmad Karimi Hakkak ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2005
A diverse sampling of contemporary Iranian letters, and a welcome tool for anyone seeking to understand a complex culture...
“They smell your breath lest you have said ‘I love you.’ ”
For many reasons, world audiences have had little opportunity to examine the work of Iranian poets, novelists, essayists and playwrights since the 1979 revolution. For one, writers under the Islamic theocracy are closely monitored; while, strangely, filmmakers have been able to introduce all manner of metaphor and allegory into their work, the censors parse literary work much more exactly, even if some surprising bits of subversion sneak through. For another, competent translations have been few. And for yet another, since they’re denied opportunities for cultural exchange, Iranian writers have been kept apart from world literary trends. The work contained in this ambitious anthology tends, in that regard, to a certain flat realism, almost reportage. (An exception is the exiled writer Shahrnush Parsipur, whom editor Mozaffari calls “a proponent of an Iranian magical realism.”) And there are plenty of real matters to record: Hushang Golshiri’s memorable story “The Victory Chronicle of the Magi,” for instance, touches on religious repression, public executions, corruption and resistance in the space of a few pages. (“Revolution?” one of his characters remarks. “This is more like vomiting one’s guts. Like taking a knife and sticking it into your own belly, then pulling out your innards and crying out, ‘Come and see.’ ”) Similarly, Mahmud Dowlatabadi’s evocative story “The Mirror,” in which a man seeks to replace a long-lost identity card and sheds the last of his own identity in the process, is an unveiled piece of political criticism, though foremost a work of art. The fine poet Ahmad Shamlu, from whose work the collection takes its title, writes, “The man who knocks at your door in the noon of the night / has come to kill the light. / Let’s hide light in the larder.” It seems remarkable that these writers have escaped the wrath of the authorities, given their candor.
A diverse sampling of contemporary Iranian letters, and a welcome tool for anyone seeking to understand a complex culture that has long been explained away as The Enemy.Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-55970-765-8
Page Count: 504
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005
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by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1995
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2008
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
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