The Vine: June 28, 2013
I recently saw the movie Argo, which I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I felt really ignorant during the beginning expository parts because apparently I know NOTHING about Iranian history.
I would really like some recommendations on some books about Iranian and/or Middle Eastern recent history (maybe 20th century to the present?).
I would also like something that is relatively neutral, as in not pro-American but not really anti-American, either. Not sure if that part is really possible. Bonus points if said book has some information about the history of present-day Israel (the country) because that is another subject that I am sorely lacking in knowledge. I did read some on Wikipedia about the actual incident that inspired Argo, which was helpful, but too limited.
Signed,
NPR is not cutting it
*****
Nation, I turn to you as my last, best hope. I’m looking for a storybook from my childhood, and I don’t have much to go on. When I was a kid (in the early to mid-’80s), this collection was on my bookshelf, and I don’t think it was very old at the time. I remember its being paperback but large (perhaps 10″ or 11″ high) and thick (like more than an inch), and printed on flimsy (sort of newsprint-quality), pastel paper — a different color for each section in the book. I remember the typeface being noticeably larger than average, and the illustrations being almost cartoonish.
The stories were not classics; they were very short, and aimed at sort of an early- to middle-elementary reading level. They were separated into categories: animals, fairies/pixies, goblins/trolls, etc. I don’t remember them being especially good, but I did read them a lot, and now that my kid seems like he might be into this kind of thing, I’d like to track down a copy for him.
I’ve tried various Google combos and some track-it-down sites I’ve seen recommended on Ask the Readers before, but any combination of “fairy tales”/”stories” + various colors just gives me the Lang fairy books or a William Steig “Yellow & Pink,” both of which are definitely entirely unrelated. Any ideas?
Signed,
I ransacked my childhood home for this and it’s definitely gone
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
NPR, I found that listening to/reading the actual book ARGO helped flesh out some of that story. It may have a bibliography that you can work from? I listened to it on Audible, so I can’t be sure.
Not sure if you’ve seen the anthology section of this site but posting anyway.
http://www.loganberrybooks.com/most-anthologies.html
I’d recommend the Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuscinski, a reporter that was in Iran during the revolution.
NPR, a couple potential recommendations:
– Persepolis! It’s a series of 2 graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi, and covers the events of the Iranian revolution well, from the autobiographical perspective of a young woman growing up in Iran. A fun, engaging read, and a way to quickly get a personal sense of recent Iranian history.
– No God But God, by Resa Aslan. This is a general history of Islam, not exclusively about Iran, but I found it to be a fast-paced, compelling, very balanced read. Aslan himself is Iranian-American, and discusses some of the particular history of how Islam has evolved in Iran.
I’ll be watching this comment thread for more, because I too saw Argo and thought “Well, that was interesting, but I would’ve actually preferred a movie that was more about the hostage crisis and the Iranian revolution.”
@NPR Check out “Guests of the Ayatollah” by Mark Bowden. I read it recently and it really gave a good in depth look at the whole situation. It was fascinating. Mark Bowden is a journalist so it’s told fairly straight forwardly and has a lot of cool info in it. (There’s some evidence that the president of Iran who just left power was heavily involved in it.)
http://www.amazon.com/Guests-Ayatollah-Hostage-Americas-Militant/dp/0802143032/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372449349&sr=1-1&keywords=guests+of+the+ayatollah
One of my favorite books from last year (cultural or otherwise) is “We Heard the Heavens Then,” about growing up in Iran pre-revolution, and having to flee because of it. It also explains in an entertaining why the shah at the time so enraged conservatives, and how he was different from previous shahs.
http://www.amazon.com/We-Heard-Heavens-Then-ebook/dp/B005FLOG22
Thanks for the rec, Maria – I’ve looked through that before, but no luck. Those lovely books all seem to be “vintage”, as in up to the ’60s, and I’d bet this was an early ’80s publication. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d got it at an elementary school book fair :)
In case it jogs anyone’s memory, I can add a bit more about the illustrations – they were (in my memory at least) just black ink line drawings against the pastel paper, almost like clip art or coloring book pictures (although it was certainly not a coloring book).
Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (in two graphic novels) provides a childhood through young adulthood account of Satrapi’s personal experience of the Iranian Revolution and aftermath.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Persepolis-Marjane-Satrapi/dp/0375714839
It’s not history, but you should read it anyway because it’s awesome: _Persepolis_, by Marjane Satrapi (and sequel, _Persepolis 2_.) It’s a graphic novel memoir about Satrapi’s experience of growing up in Iran in the 70s and 80s, until her parents serbs her away to school. There’s also a film version of it.
Ransacked- That kind of sounds like the story volume of a set of Childcraft eneyclopedias, though most of those were hardcovers. We’re of an age and I loved my family’s Childcraft and would steal my favorite volumes to hide in my room.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childcraft
I can’t pull up images here (and each version has different cover art,) but there was at least one volume of fairy tales/folks tales and another of short stories, some of which were adapted from or excerpted from popular children’s books.
All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer! Totally a great book.
Everything I know about Iranian politics/history, I got from Persepolis. It’s a graphic memoir, so not straight-up nonfiction, but a lot of info gets shared when the character is a little girl and asks questions about why things are how they are.
“Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi – a graphic memoir.
I would also recommend Tony Mendez’s book, Argo.
For a non-Americentric view of Middle Eastern history prior to the Muslim fundamentalists coming into power, read T. E. Lawrence’s work “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” (or the abridged version “Revolt in the Desert”.) His life & work in the Middle East was made into the movie “Lawrence of Arabia.”
Regarding Israel, I’d check out “The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland” and/or “The Origins of Israel, 1882-1948: A Documentary History” both on Amazon.
I’d suggest “The Battle for God” by Karen Armstrong. It’s a more historical look at the rise of fundamentalism in the three major monotheistic religions, but it gave me faaaaar more info on why the region has ongoing intractable conflicts.
Childcraft! We had the whole set growing up, and when I first went to visit my husband’s (then fiancee’s) parents, they had the whole set as well! I knew I was doing the right thing.
Persepolis was made into a movie a couple of years back. Animated, with subtitles. A really successful interpretation of the GN, imo. Got good reviews; should be easily findable out in the video/streaming video universe. (Catherine Deneuve does some of the voice work in the movie, which in my book is awesome. She’s gorgeous even when you can’t see her)
We had the Childcraft set too, and the book I’m looking for was quite a bit newer and, frankly, lower-quality :/
“Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present” by Michael Oren is a good resource. Ambassador Oren’s personal politics are not to my taste, but this is a scholarly work and I have respect for his career as a historian. It is comprehensive and focuses on US-ME relations.
In re: Iranian history: The Last Great Revolution, by Robin Wright. Good history of the Revolution, and the situation in Iran now. Persepolis, as others mentioned. Ryzsard Kapuscinski (a Polish journalist) was in Iran during the Revolution and wrote a book about the fall of the Shah called SHAH OF SHAHS, which is extraordinary. It really shows how Khomeini hijacked what was a democratic revolution at the beginning. Persepolis shows the fallout, and the disappointment of the intellectuals who had helped bring about the Shah’s fall, only then to find religious fundamentalists taking over. This brought about the huge “brain drain” in the 80s and 90s, all the intellectuals emigrating to other countries.
Hope this helps!
NPR, re the final element of your request, I can’t think of a good book that combines Iran and Israel but if you get into it more, two readable books on the modern history of Israel are Golda Meir ‘s autobiography ‘My LIfe’ , and ‘Israel is Real’ by Rich Cohen.
For more Middle Eastern info, I recommend “Den of Lions” by Terry Anderson, who was one of the hostages held in Lebanon (through the support of Iran). It obviously isn’t bias-free, but in the intro to the book, Anderson gives a pretty good synopsis of the politics in Lebanon that led to the point where Western hostages were being taken.
A good book for getting a feel for recent Iranian history is The Gaze of The Gazelle, by Arash Hejazi.
It’s very personal (it’s a memoir, rather than a history), but it’s a good book for getting the feel life in Iran over the past 40 years.
Arash was also (at various points), a doctor, a journalist, an editor and a publisher, so he does have an eye for putting what was happening with him to what was happening in Iran in general.
During the 2009 protests, Arash was an eyewitness to the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan (if you saw the video -it was all over the news at the time- he was one of the guys that ran up to her when she fell), which is why he had to leave the country.
It’s also something of a tragic book, in some ways, because it’s clearly written by a man who loves his country, misses it, and mourns for all the ways its hurting itself and its people.
JenAK, I had that storybook, too, at around the same time, but couldn’t remember the name, either. After a bit of searching found the BookSleuth forum on AbeBooks, and it seems someone else was looking for the same thing:
http://forums.abebooks.com/discussions/AbeBookscom_BookSleuthreg/_/Story_collection_colored_paper_themes/abeSleuthCom/17357.1?nav=messages
It sounds like “The Big Storybook”, which is out of print, but hopefully you can find a copy somewhere.
Laura – wow, that does sound like it! Thank you so much! Like the other person trying to find it, at least now I know what I’m looking for. Bonus: I know I’m not crazy – it really did exist! :)
It’s on Amazon, but it’ll cost you.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000T8MRYU/ref=dp_olp_used_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=used
“The Big Story Book” edited by Malvina Vogel is definitely it – it looks to be really hard to find in physical form, but it is available on Open Library, so I can read it to my son from my laptop right now!
Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni is another memoir about being Iranian American and going to Iran for a job as an adult, and it much more about the contemporary state of Iran than a historical one. But it’s very good at presenting the ways that the historical background has determined the current situation. Also, funny.
And I second the No God But God, by Resa Aslan, rec. It’s interesting and wildly informative. Also, he’s a stone cold fox, and when I had cable I loved it when he would be on Anderson Cooper. Two pretty, pretty men talking all smarty-pants-like. Um. To be really superficial about the world…
Islamic: Another book that covers the fall of the Shah and the Islamic Revolution from a semi personal basis is “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi. I believe it’s a little bit different than Persepolis in that the perspective is that of someone who was already an adult at the height of the revolution.
I’ve heard great things about “The Eagle and the Lion” – it’s somewhat academic, but it’s a good history of the messed up relationship between the U.S. and Iran from the early 1900s to the late 1980s.