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Rating: 
Summary: delightful read
Review: I am a casual reader of literature from the Middle East and I have found a particular delight in this translation by Dr. Talattof's of Sharnush Parsipur's book, Women Without Men. I have suggested it to all my friends in Princeton and beyond.
Rating:
Summary: delightful read
Review: I am an avid reader of literature of the Middle East and I found Dr. Talattof and Jocelyn Sharlet's translation of Parsipur's Women Without Men to be a delightful read. I have suggested it to all my friends in Princeton and beyond. It is one of those books that reads quickly, but stays on the mind a long time. Parsipur touches upon issues that are of interest to men and women, 'Easterners' and 'Westerners' alike.
Rating:
Summary: An increadable account of women....
Review: I found the book "Women Without Men" to be an increadable account of the lives of women in different points and positions in life. It is captivating in that it can relate to all women throughout the world, not just middle-eastern women. It brings up topics of what it is to be a woman, and the many issues that women are raised with or forced to deal with. I found it to be a very pure form of feminism. It is stories about women. Stories of women dealing with virginity, rape, love, prostitution, and the desire to nurture. Men can also relate to this work. I recommend it to all women to read. It is elequent, and honest. It beautifully illustrates the notion that "finding a man" is not the answer to all of a woman's happiness, but that her happiness has to come from within herself first!
Rating:
Summary: delightful read
Review: This book is a fascinating exploration of gender roles Iranian society. We are introduced to different women in a variety of situations who share one common bond, for one reason or another they are without men. Through a variety of female archetypes, Parsipur evaluates the way a manless woman fits into mid 20th century Iran. The beautiful imagery and symbolism within the novella, make it a thought provoking and joyful read.
Rating:
Summary: A Thought Provoking Story for Humanity
Review: This book was a musical analysis of women in Iran. Parsipur weaves the story of five different women from various backgrounds and explores how they function in society as women without men. It also exposes cultural guidlines present in mid century Iran. This book welds together a number of different issues from sexuality and gender roles to friendship. The book conjures ideas that universally speak to men and women living anywhere. Using a garden, Parispur symbolizes her characters' desires and longings for happiness and contentment. the characters lead us through fascinating paths that force us to think about a number of contemporary issues. Women Without Men is a beautiful and poetically written book that nobody wants to miss.
Rating:
Summary: A little gem!!!
Review: Though I stumbled upon the novel by accident, I must admit this book was well worth finding. The stories were simply written but were almost deceivingly fully loaded-- full of conflicting values, political ideology and agendas, and societal turmoil. The compilation of separate women's lives, so different from one another, but joined together by a common thread, hearkens back to a similar style of tale-telling found in many other cultures, such as Amy Tan's novel 'The Joy Luck Club' and the popular film 'How to Make an American Quilt'. Rather than choosing to write a politicized essay or thesis which reaches only a certain segment of the educated and politically literate population, Parsipur chooses to write fiction, laced with raw truths and posessing a clear agenda. Such tales are typical of the kind that are passed down from generation to generation in order to educate the young about their society's morals or possible pitfalls that may entrap those who stray from the accepted norm. This is not dissimilar from urban legends that adults in American society pass amongst themselves or the fairy tales laced with truths that young children are told before bedtime. Sometimes the most volitile information is passed down and understood by the most simple or innocuous means, and I think that is a conscious choice that Parsipur has made with this book. She chooses to uncover the double standard that both male and female society is guilty of upholding, the notion of virginity (and the understanding of what it is and what it means), and socially-sanctioned ideas of morality, mortality, violence, and inter-gender relationships through stories that allow the reader to look at how different women deal with the society that they live in. Because Parsipur does not clearly lay out a list of evils that Iranian society proportedly commits, nor does she specifically glorify other elements of her society, her writing raises many more questions for the reader to ponder. By making the problems personal for each woman, some of the issues that a reader would initally consider black and white suddenly turn grey, which in turn, leads to a greater depth of meaning in her work. In sum, I was very impressed by the book's simplicity, and appreciative for the brief glimpse through the window to Iranian society that it offered.
Rating:
Summary: A little gem!!!
Review: Though I stumbled upon the novel by accident, I must admit this book was well worth finding. The stories were simply written but were almost deceivingly fully loaded-- full of conflicting values, political ideology and agendas, and societal turmoil. The compilation of separate women's lives, so different from one another, but joined together by a common thread, hearkens back to a similar style of tale-telling found in many other cultures, such as Amy Tan's novel 'The Joy Luck Club' and the popular film 'How to Make an American Quilt'. Rather than choosing to write a politicized essay or thesis which reaches only a certain segment of the educated and politically literate population, Parsipur chooses to write fiction, laced with raw truths and posessing a clear agenda. Such tales are typical of the kind that are passed down from generation to generation in order to educate the young about their society's morals or possible pitfalls that may entrap those who stray from the accepted norm. This is not dissimilar from urban legends that adults in American society pass amongst themselves or the fairy tales laced with truths that young children are told before bedtime. Sometimes the most volitile information is passed down and understood by the most simple or innocuous means, and I think that is a conscious choice that Parsipur has made with this book. She chooses to uncover the double standard that both male and female society is guilty of upholding, the notion of virginity (and the understanding of what it is and what it means), and socially-sanctioned ideas of morality, mortality, violence, and inter-gender relationships through stories that allow the reader to look at how different women deal with the society that they live in. Because Parsipur does not clearly lay out a list of evils that Iranian society proportedly commits, nor does she specifically glorify other elements of her society, her writing raises many more questions for the reader to ponder. By making the problems personal for each woman, some of the issues that a reader would initally consider black and white suddenly turn grey, which in turn, leads to a greater depth of meaning in her work. In sum, I was very impressed by the book's simplicity, and appreciative for the brief glimpse through the window to Iranian society that it offered.
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