The Persian Bride

Rating:
Summary: A White Guy's Fantasy
Review: I found this book very difficult to read, as the story is not realistic at all. As the author lacks enough knowledge and understanding of the Iranian culture and its sub-cultures, he fails to develop the characters appropriately. For example, he portrays the General as a very religious man. For those who are familiar with pre-revolution Iran, know this well that it would be next to impossible to find a religious high ranking officer (let alone a General). There seems to be too many coincidences. The whole story seems to be more like a white guy's fantasy about going to an exotic place, developing a sexual relationship with a beautiful underage girl and act as her hero, than like a real story. My advice to all of those who would like to cash in on the exotic places such as Iran is, at least, do your homework.

Rating:
Summary: Enormous disappointment
Review: I'm told this book was "hailed as a masterpiece in Britain" and that it has been compared to Doctor Zhivago, so it sounded like a wonderful reading experience. However, I have to agree with others here who said they found it to be unreadable. Buchan does a poor job of clearly describing much of anything. The prose is disjointed and confusing and the story jumps around in time and location without adequately explaining any one of those times or locations. It is almost unheard of for me to quit reading a book before finishing it, but I gave up on this one very early on because it utterly failed to grab me on any level. There are some truly great works of fiction out there that will capture you and hold you from cover to cover. Unfortunately this is not even close to being one of them.

Rating:
Summary: Could not get through it
Review: In a time when so many Americans are attempting to understand Islamic cultures and recent history of this part of the world, Buchan offers a personal, dreamlike interpretation. The book is difficult to read at times unless one remembers that it is a deeply introspective dream- indeed a nightmare!- without the lucidity of a step by step chronology. The personal trials of one young American who is enchanted by this culture has a rhythm that is similar to the sound of the flute against the heavy drum beat of history in the background.

The book is sprinkled throughout with lines of poetry from former centuries that is still vital, living and reverberating in the thought processes of the people. There was a sense of poetry used like hip-hop verses are now-to express a deep poignancy of culture and belief system unlike any that most Westerners understand.

I also had a sense of the writing being like a Persian minature, a central "picture" with myriad details drawing the reader into and out of the scene.

For me, this category of literature is extremely exciting. As we are exposed to more and more books written about or by authors outside Western culture, our opinions on what is happening in the political world can only become more humanitarian, more understanding and, hopefully, decisions will be made more intelligently.

Compare the Iranian general with the character in "House of Sand and Fog" the relationship in "Nino and Ali" and the characters in "Flesh, Blood and Bone", the interaction of cultures in "Balzac and the little Chinese seanstress", the class system in "A Fine Balance", "Caucasia" multiracial interactions in the US, "Yo!", "Anil's Ghost", etc..

Wow, what exciting times for literature!

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful spiritual journey
Review: In this book, you experience the spiritual journey that the main character goes through because of his love of a woman. This is told against the backdrop of the geopolitical situations in the middle east from the seventies to the nineties. I experienced what felt like a lifetime within the pages of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Culturally inaccurate
Review: Some books demand you set them down and return to them later, for they are too rich to be read in one stretch (e.g., William Gaddis' _The Recognitions_, Blaise Cendrars' memoir tetralogy). Others, like Buchan's book, will not let you go. Each page requires the next page be read immediately.

This is not to say _The Persian Bride_ is a thriller, nor do I agree that it is an epic. It is, instead, a romance written without sentimentality. I can't imagine the narrator, as he appears at the chronological beginning of the story, ever engaging the sympathies of any reader. He is set up to be toppled, by love in the person of Shirin. As readers we are as eager to see the collapse of the conceited John Pitt and his subsequent self-renovation as to read of their escape and married life together, and what follows their insulated existence.

The prose, because of the weight of thought behind it (from the characters, not from the author), contains more than what is said, but what is not immediately apparent is expansive. Histories and civilizations, as well as lives, lie under every line, and as Pitt topples so does the iran of the Shah.

Someone has said the dialogue is convincing. While I've not been to any of the countries visited in the narrative, the feelings and the toughmindedness of Shirin remind me of many persian friends. The machinations of those in power, those who used to be, and those who want to be are complex and real. The gradual enlightenment of the narrator rings true.

Gradually the novel becomes diffuse as the narrator's grip on himself (it can be argued he never had more than an occasional grip on events) loosens. One can argue that as this occurs the dramatic aspect of the work decreases. Yet what takes its place is perfectly in keeping with the narrator's growth. His journeys through and travails in the middle east, or cental asia, or west asia, depending on the perspective, mirrors his disintegrating self-centredness while revealing the book to be, in some respects, a quest novel. The end, with which some are dissatisfied, falls into the tradition of Dante seeing Beatrice in Paradiso. Its reality is in question, and probably a few readers would like to know if what is presented is what happens. That is immaterial to the novel, for thematically Buchan writes of a type of grace which many will feel to be truthful, if not in fact than in their bones, blood and soul, and which perfectly closes the book.

_The Persian Bride_ is a rich, emotionally engaging and significant novel, an evocative, spiritual odyssey, for which Buchan must be given high praise.

Rating:
Summary: Poetic, hard-edged and timely
Review: Some books demand you set them down and return to them later, for they are too rich to be read in one stretch (e.g., William Gaddis' _The Recognitions_, Blaise Cendrars' memoir tetralogy). Others, like Buchan's book, will not let you go. Each page requires the next page be read immediately.

This is not to say _The Persian Bride_ is a thriller, nor do I agree that it is an epic. It is, instead, a romance written without sentimentality. I can't imagine the narrator, as he appears at the chronological beginning of the story, ever engaging the sympathies of any reader. He is set up to be toppled, by love in the person of Shirin. As readers we are as eager to see the collapse of the conceited John Pitt and his subsequent self-renovation as to read of their escape and married life together, and what follows their insulated existence.

The prose, because of the weight of thought behind it (from the characters, not from the author), contains more than what is said, but what is not immediately apparent is expansive. Histories and civilizations, as well as lives, lie under every line, and as Pitt topples so does the iran of the Shah.

Someone has said the dialogue is convincing. While I've not been to any of the countries visited in the narrative, the feelings and the toughmindedness of Shirin remind me of many persian friends. The machinations of those in power, those who used to be, and those who want to be are complex and real. The gradual enlightenment of the narrator rings true.

Gradually the novel becomes diffuse as the narrator's grip on himself (it can be argued he never had more than an occasional grip on events) loosens. One can argue that as this occurs the dramatic aspect of the work decreases. Yet what takes its place is perfectly in keeping with the narrator's growth. His journeys through and travails in the middle east, or cental asia, or west asia, depending on the perspective, mirrors his disintegrating self-centredness while revealing the book to be, in some respects, a quest novel. The end, with which some are dissatisfied, falls into the tradition of Dante seeing Beatrice in Paradiso. Its reality is in question, and probably a few readers would like to know if what is presented is what happens. That is immaterial to the novel, for thematically Buchan writes of a type of grace which many will feel to be truthful, if not in fact than in their bones, blood and soul, and which perfectly closes the book.

_The Persian Bride_ is a rich, emotionally engaging and significant novel, an evocative, spiritual odyssey, for which Buchan must be given high praise.

Rating:
Summary: Enormous disappointment
Review: This is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time. I found myself marking passages in the prose, so I could return to them later and savor them at leisure, without a rapidly moving plot to deter me. It is also a difficult book to read. As with much good literature, it is necessary to concentrate and read every word. This is not a novel that can be skimmed, or speed read. It is definitely not a light read. Filled with symbolism, and allusions to Iranian culture, the Farsi language, ancient poets and older cities, it is the love story of one couple, and the story of a nation in political, cultural and social upheaval. If you read carefully, with patience, the story will unfold for you like a beautiful Isfahani rose.

A young Englishman goes to Iran in the mid-1970s. Many young American and European "hippies" passed through that country, beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through until before the revolution in 1979. Iran was on the way to India, the destination point of many young westerners. The Beatles and other pop stars had made India a mecca for the young with its gurus, cheap drugs, native music, mysticism, etc.. And Persia was a romantic place stop on the way - with its exquisite, impressive countryside, hospitable people, and romantic, gracious and exotic culture. So, John Pitt finds himself in Isfahan, a fairytale of a city. There he meets the enchanting Shrin Farameh. They love. They run away and marry. They struggle to combine cultures and language and to make a world for themselves amidst the chaos and political nightmare that is pre-revolution Iran. Their marriage also carries with it tremendous political & personal consequences. But I won't go there now and spoil one of the more enticing aspects of the plot. Suffice it to say, that the couple is violently & tragically separated. Following the separation, comes suffering that could read like a chapter out of Job. But John is never deterred from his mission to reunite with his wife and the daughter he barely had time to know.

I lived in Iran from 1965 until 1968, and "The Persian Bride" brought so much of my experience back to me. It is a jewel of a novel - a masterpiece!