Journey from the Land of No : A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran

Rating:
Summary: A major book by an important writer
Review: This book opened my eyes like nothing I've read since "Midnight's Children." And it is all the more powerful for being a woman's story. Do we have many books like this? I don't think so. It's the story of the convergence of the peak, rapid-fire events of the writer's dawning adolescence with the historically definitive crises of her country of Iran, her city of Tehran. I agree with Salman Rushdie that the health of a culture can be measured by its treatment of women. JOURNEY follows a trail of blood--the blood of the lamb slaughtered for a wedding feast, the blood of a disgraced female cousin's questioned virginity, and finally the blood of the martrys of the revolution. And then there is the writer's own blood--her first menstrual blood at 13. On the threshold of womanhood, she wonders at the shame assigned to women, the glory to the martyr's sacrifice: "No matter how young or old, that bleeding head was venerated. And not my blood?"
A wonderful thing in this book is the chapter about the character of Mrs. Arman. The female schoolteacher, mother and muse of women writers. (Like a Eudora Welty schoolteacher heroine.) She gives her students a sense of solidarity in their exile under the Muslim regime; her touch restores them to their bodies. And it's the moment when Mrs. Arman proclaims--you're a writer! you're a writer! Don't ever forget it! Don't let me down!--that is the decisive one in the author's story, that baptizes her and sanctifies her coming journey out into the world.
Because the story's about her emergence as a writer as well. It's only when the map of her beloved city (which her writing traces) is no longer recognizable and the notebooks she's filled with her poetry have been burnt, that her journey from the land of No is inescapable.
The writing is breaktaking. The metaphors flow effortlessly. I think this is a major book by an important writer.

Rating:
Summary: a window for understanding
Review: "Journey From the Land of No" allows us to, in a small part, understand the experience of Persians, especially Persian Jews during the events in the late 70's. While I will never understand, I appreciate the author's sharing of her memories. Thanks, sister!

For anyone who is an American, as I am, this is a book to be read. It provides a window on the times of momentous change in Iran. I found it to be of great value because it was the story of one person. Yes, it did not provide the whole history as a textbook might provide. But, what I got was much more profound... the history of one person. That, I think, is much more valuable.

Rating:
Summary: A Page Turner
Review: As a literary memoir, I found Journey from the Land of No more powerful than Reading Lolita, and politically it puts the religious uprising in a better perspective, I mean its feel at the time or its causes. Both of these wonderful books complement each other while they remain very different. Journey is humorous and tragic in one breath and reads like a novel. It's a page turner.

Rating:
Summary: Gulped it down in one reading...
Review: Hakakian has written the rarest of books: A girlhood memoir that uniquely and wittily shows us how much more is at stake in publishing than money and glamour. She has done a great public service to Jews and gentile alike for exposing the absurdities of the Islamic regime pathologically obsessed with religious purity. I found the book moving and revelatory. It is no small feat to recreate a whole world twenty five years after the fact, and she does it charmingly, magically, and with fine detail.

Hakakian also happens to possess a stand-up comic gift for punch lines.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ!
Review: The amazing details of this book will take you back to a time where we still ask, "What happened?" It is beautifully written. If you enjoy reading books that you are unable to put down till you finish; this is it!

Rating:
Summary: Visitors' Messages
Review: The following selected messages were sent to the book's official website by the readers:

--- I was up whole night and couldn't keep it down until i finish it. It was a mesmerizing experience. 25 years ago, I came to United States at my own will. I often visit my parents, my hometown and every time I find out how much I miss all that. I can imagine how hard it must be to see everything ruined. I had tears in my eyes. I strongly recommend this book to my friends. I feel very fortunate to grow up in developing India and living in USA in my youth. Thanks.(Rohini)

--- I loved your book, rich and beautiful language, vivid, colourful descriptions, full of homesickness, nostalgia, political awareness and good judgement! Never read a more gripping analysis.(Gerlind)

--- I am so glad that you wrote this book as its a very important part of history. As someone who lived there at the same time I was really impressed with your details.(Golbarg)-- I just read your book. I love the way it touched me,I still remember Mrs Moghaddam,met her in Anoushirvan dadgar...(Mitra)

--- As an Iranian Jew, I appreciated your book immensely. I left Iran as a student in 1967, and have been out of touch with Iranians, since my parents migrated to Israel in 1972. Many thanks for such a precious book. I believe your a master in English language an a brilliant writer. (Nasser)

--- Please don't give up your use of metaphors! I just finished reading your book and was blown away by your writing style. I savored every word. Am looking forward to your next book!Sincerely,(Charles)

--- Pulitzer, Pulitzer, Pulitzer!!!I just finished your book last night. Your poetic prose is revolutionary! (pardon the pun)I have already recommended the book to two friends, and am about to write my cousin (who sounds so much like you) to recommend it to her. One thing that got me wondering: throughout the book and in your interviews, it appears that you maintain a belief that people from all walks of life can indeed live side by side, learn from each other, and basically get along...that there's little or no need to harbor any resentment or bitterness toward anyone who is in any way different. I believe this too. But is there a subtle undlerlying distinction in your book between things Persian and things Arabic (i.e. culture, language)? Do you feel that Iran was infiltrated and over-influenced by Arabs and Arabic language? Do you feel that Persia, Persian culture and Persian language fell by the wayside and is slipping away? Unless I already forgot, I don't remember reading anything positive about Arabic culture and language. Do you feel that there is anything positive about Arabic culture? In other words, it's obvious you believe that Jews, Muslims, and Persians (and many others...Bahai, Christians, etc.) can live together. But what about Jews and Arabs? Or Arabs and anybody, for that matter? Thank you for your beautiful book.Sincerely,(Miritt)

--- it is such an important piece: i will be directing my students to read it. (i teach jewish cultural studies in sydney australia)it is important because it is a clear record of how jews were not singled out for special abuse by muslims and the ethnic cleansing that would have followed; becasue it showed that jews, as committed citizens, were also part of the revolution. but i thank you for the book for an even deeper reason: i was an american student in tehran from 1975 until 1978. i lived with a muslim family on kakh street at chah-hara-ye tir, who spent much of their time trying to match me up with local jewish boys. to them, i was a nice girl, i needed a husband. i could see that something was coming and the fury and anger building up would not be denied for much longer. reading your book, i could remember the sound of the water in the joobs, the smell of the dusty plane trees mixed with other car smells. your book helped me resurrect feelings and memories that i had put away because of the pain and disappointment that followed. dozens of things that i had forgotten are now bubbling up back in to my consciousness.so thank you very, very much for sharing your life with us, your readers.best,(michelle)

--- When the librarian handed me your book I almost droped everything else I was holding "Oh my god,that is her we used to be classmates and that's exactly how I remember her".The picture with the scarf probabley from your high school years just when we were at Rahe Danesh. I was so excited,happy,proud living those days all day yesterday.We were close friends but I think that year was very different for all of us,I remember we all looked forward for your essays and the way you read them everybody holdig their breath and every once in a while some tears.(Hengameh)

--- As I read your book I often found myself in tears. I am an Iranian woman and I have had several similar experiences. I wish that we all find the courage to speak about the flaws in our own culture.Thanks for sharing your story. (S.)

--- I just finished your beautiful book "Journey From the Land of No." Thank you for sharing your life and your country with me. I grew up on 21 acres in Montana. When my parents sold the land I was heartbroken. Yet, you didn't lose a few acres. You lost a country and a way of life. It made my loss seem so small. I have been touched by your book. Thank you so much.Sincerely, (Aysha)

--- I just finished reading your book, Journey from the Land of No. I could harldy put it down and learned so much about your country and your life. I would love to know how you felt when you first came to America and what you think of America today. It would be wonderful if you wrote a sequel to your first book and told the story of you and your family coming to America and your perceptions of it. There were many things that provoked my thinking and way of looking at your country as I read your book. I was impressed with your courage and boldness to learn for yourself and to act on your convictions. I haven't enjoyed a book as much and learned as much at the same time.Most sincerely,(Barbara)

--- I recently read your new book 'journey from the land of no'. It is fascinating how you have managed to integrate the spectrum of social attitudes into the characters of your childhood. Your story is truly captivating and brings events to life. I am glad that someone has finally written about this transitional period in iranian history from a jewish perspective. (David)

--- So moving, beautifully written, poetic, poignant without being sentimental. I'm sure you've heard of Reading Lolita in Tehran, which I had read previously, and I found your book to be a fascinating counterpart to that memoir. Because, as a Jew, I wondered about the Jewish situation in Iran during the Revolution as I read that book. Reminiscent of stories of Nazi Germany, from where my grandparents escaped, the no-this-can't-be-happening-to-us, here, things are different now, except they're not. How you loved the city of your birth, the way my grandmother loved the Russian town where she was born, gone forever. Thank you for writing your story, for showing a glimpse of a Jewish world I don't often see. And you hint at more stories yet untold, which I hope you will share.(Lise)

---

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written memoir
Review: This book helps understand what it was to live through a fundamentalist revolution. Written in beautiful, lyrical language. It's a joy to read.
I just hope the author writes more books. What a talent!

Rating:
Summary: What if Anne Frank had survived
Review: This is a beautiful and unusual book. It is the story of a young Jewish girl's passage to and through puberty while her home is in the grip of violent forces. Fortunately it ends better than Anne Frank's life ended.
Generally when we hear of turmoil in a distant land we cluck our tongues and feel pity for a few stereotypical unfortunates -- but unfortunates are not stereotypical. Each one has her own story to tell.
A subtext is the price of the unholy alliances that our leaders make -- and the prices we all have to pay for them. The revolution in Iran was largely the doing of young people who were seeking independence from the dictator imposed by the United States and Great Britain on Iran. But they made an unholy alliance with the ultra-conservative Muslims who turned on them to impose a tyranny harsher than that of the Shah. This is something American Jews who are supporting the hard Christian conservatives might want to think about.
Readers who enjoy this book might be interested in
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
a blog by a young Iraqui woman that is also beautifully written and informative. I hope her story turns out as well as Roya Hakakian's has.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Look
Review: This is not only the look in to a painful past and the fight to overcome but is an inspirational piece of work as well. Excellent penmanship and very hard to put down till you close the book.

Also recommending: Reading Lolita In Tehran,Running With Scissors,Nightmares Echo


Rating:
Summary: reads like a novel
Review: This well-written book reads like a novel. A novel set in revolutionary iran as seen through the eyes of an observant, somewhat idealistic teenager, told in the polished prose of a crafted writer. It is a porthole in to the journey of an adolescence, of the juxtaposition of a minority group within the larger society, of a popular resurrection for a better society (and the eventual wrong turn!), and of a woman finding her voice. I've read many books on iran and the revolution... mostly from academics, journalists, or historians. This memoir (like Satrapi's Persepolis) re-tells the experience from a very personal, boots-on-the-ground! vantage that is also pertinent to understanding our current troubled times.

With Hakakian's writing one feels as if on a streamlined yacht sailing gently through the turbulent waters of her time. Each chapter is a well-crafted essay - there isn't a strenuous sentence in the whole book. I savored reading each section, then closed the book, sunk into it, absored it, and left some for later, as you might do with a rare delicacy.

In all my reviews here in Amazonia I have rarely given 5 stars. I can do so without hesitation to Journey. I would venture that this book marks a watershed in new iranian-american writing, from plain memoirs to crafted story-telling.