Rating: 
Summary: A human story --
Review: Its unfortunate that many reviewers of this book have used this site to express their own political views and, therefore, represent a skewed review of Farah Pahlavi's book.
Farah's book is a beautiful human story of a woman living her destiny and experiencing life with all its pains and glory. It is a story of a daugher, a wife, a mother, and a Queen. Having just returned from a trip to Iran and spent some time researching some of the facts mentioned in this book, I can vouch that the works and plans of the Shah, Farah, and the Shah's father for Iran are exactly those about which the current regime boasts and uses to lure tourism today.
It remains undisputed that the Pahlavi regime provided great service to Iranians and ensured security in the Middle East. For that, we will be forever thankful to the Pahlavis.
Rating:
Summary: Terrorism
Review: The terrorism the world faces today can be laid directly at the feet of our culpability for failing to support the Shah, our best friend in the region. The president said he had read the Koran and had sympathy for the insurgents! I remember vividly my dismay at the actions of our government. What a legacy.
At times I could almost see Iran as is pictured in the book before the fall of the Shah, the trees, desert, poverty, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Out of Touch with Reality
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. Farah went from the height of power, prestige, admiration (real or imagined)to desolation, desperation, isolation and despair.
To her the Shah must have been a just ruler who became a victim. This is the man she loved, afterall, and maybe she really believes it, but to the average reader with a little knowledge of the history of Iran she may come accross as being out of touch with reality.
I wonder if she ever read any books that describe the Shah of Persia as a brutal dictator who tortured, killed and jailed the opposition. Was she totally in the dark? She doesn't aknowledge any wrong doing and seemed shocked by having to go into exile.
Her pain is very real but I find the book a bit unrealistic.
Rating: 
Summary: No concept of history
Review: My previous review of this book was removed. So, here is a new review, this time facts only. Firstly, I am not Islamic and have read enough about the family of the Shah. Farah Pahlavi may have love for her husband and her country. Well, that does not make up for everything that her husband was for. He was installed in power instead of Mohammed Mossadegh, a true patriot, to protect the interests of the oil of US and UK. That led to the disastrous consequences. Granted that he gave civil liberties (as long as you do not criticize the monarchy) and there was religious freedom and the government there now is worse than what was there. When he celebrated 2500 years of Persian empire in Persepolis, he invited over 100 heads of state. This was a grand spectacle over which he spent over $110 million. When there is poverty and unrest in the provinces in the country, he wasted money on this. The British royal family was advised not to attend this. He was given the title Aryamehr - literally meaning light of the Aryans. He recited a poem that said that he was in the line of the Cyrus the Great - the founder of the Achaemenid empire. Cyrus was a king who was magnanimus even to his enemies. The Shah on the other hand was brutal in the suppression of his detractors. This is directly from the Persian section of the BBC. Anyone can take the life of a person and leave out the relevant portions and make a person look good - that is revisionism. There are no details of the misguided life that their family had, including the looting, the torturing of the political prisoners, a small cabal of people having all the wealth and power.
Formed in 1957, SAVAK developed into an effective secret agency. General Teymur Bakhtiar was appointed its first director, only to be dismissed in 1961, allegedly for organizing a coup; he was assassinated in 1970 under mysterious circumstances, probably on the shah's direct order. His successor, General Hosain Pakravan, was dismissed in 1966, allegedly for having failed to crush the clerical opposition in the early 1960s. The shah turned to his childhood friend and classmate, General Nematollah Nassiri, to rebuild SAVAK and properly "serve" the monarch. Mansur Rafizadeh, the SAVAK director in the United States throughout the 1970s, claimed that General Nassiri's telephone was tapped by SAVAK agents reporting directly to the shah, an example of the level of mistrust pervading the government on the eve of the Revolution. This is not in the book. Now the readers can judge for themselves whether this was a noble king.
Rating:
Summary: Graceful, truthful and utterly powerful!
Review: I loved this book. The review that it mirrors Queen Noor's book is wrong. Both were great books, but very different stories with different styles. The critics should remember that the author is telling the story from her perspective - from her loss, her triumph, and her feelings. She did admit to mistakes and I had the feeling she (and her son) learned from them. When I put the book down, I couldn't go to sleep because I was thinking about this struggle she brought to life in the pages of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Please forgive us!
Review: On behalf of the Iranian people, I would like to say to the Pahlavis that we are sorry. We messed up!This book is a wonderful depiction of the great services the Shah gave to Iran and they way we, the people of Iran, betrayed him. As the recent events in Iran show, the people of Iran are determined to bring down the brutal Islamic regime and restore dignity and sovereignty to the people. We will get our country back from the facist Islamic dictators!
Rating: 
Summary: one sided
Review: The Iran she describes is different than the one my Iranian friends descirbe. For example, Farah talks of building libraries for children. What she does not say, but my friends do, is that the libraries were only for the upper class. Children of the lower class had to work. There was child labor in Iran. And MOST of the population was lower class. Laboring children did not go to school and thus never learned to read. Recently I read the book: MY LAST REMAINS by Jill. It is about what happened to an American child. Toward the end of the book, she goes to Iran. I enjoyed what her comments were.
Rating:
Summary: Impossible to put down
Review: I'm not sure how anyone could give the Empress's memoir anything less than five stars. Sounds like some people on this review list have a mean-spirited vendetta against the Pahlavis. The Empress's book is impossible to put down. A real page-turner. Her inside assessment of events leading to the 1979 revolution is enlightening and unnerving. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of her childhood in Tehran. She paints a lovely picture of life in pre-modern Iran. As an American, I read with shame the Queen's account of how our government - along with every western nation - turned its back on the Shah in his time of need. The Queen seems very kind and nice. What a shame that she's lost so much - her nation, her husband and her daughter. I enjoyed this read very much - it was a great blending of historical events and personal memories. I'm giving it as birthday gifts this summer. It's a great read.
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