Book Review: Things I've Been Silent About

Things I've Been Silent About: Memories of a Prodigal Daughter, Azar Nafisi
originally published: 2008
finished reading: 22 February 2012
cost: $20 (paperback swap)



This book took me forever to finish. I'm not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. I remember the Iranian revolution. I was in junior high and high school when the Americans were taken hostage and held in the embassy and I clearly remember the events as they were happening. I guess I wanted an idea of what it was like from someone who was actually there.

Nafisi is the pampered daughter of two people who were both well connected. Her father was an advisor to the Shah and her mother eventually became part of the political machine. This book is the story of their lives, filtered through Nafisi's eyes.

The book could have been fascinating. The impression that it left me with was that of a spoiled princess who loved her father more than she loved her mother and did what she could to break free of them. I didn't get a sense of what happened to regular Iranian citizens during the time of the revolution, because Nafisi isn't one of them.

This book is not a broad description of what life in Iran was like before and during the revolution. It is one small slice of one family.