Shahrnush Parsipur

Parsipur was imprisoned for writing this book, which makes me want to give it five stars right off the bat, but I try to keep my ratings "honest" based on a combination of the writing itself and how it affects me. While Women Without Men is certain affecting and skillfully rendered, I can't help feeling that some of the nuances were lost on me, either by way of it being a translated work (no affront to the translator) or more likely, my lack of knowledge about Persian/Iranian culture. I'm certainly glad to have read it, though.

From the Author's Note (2011):

"Becoming a poet has become a common practice in Iran. People, without knowing anything about the rules of poetry, put words together abruptly and, using weird thoughts, believe they are creating poetry.

For example, 'Light's affection is running in electric wires,' or 'The scream coming to the surface of existence was violet in color,' or 'Earth's Red told the Blue of Presence: I don't like destiny.' And so on. Some of these poems are interesting, but they become ridiculous when, in order to cover their own illiteracy, some poets claim that the grammatical conventions in poetry are nonsense and have to be discarded altogether.

Is this desire to throw out the old the reason why millions of people poured into the streets and kicked the Shah out without understanding what could happen next? The new government turned on them and their loved ones, executing hundreds of thousands, even their own teenagers, who wanted to create a new government."

3.5… (more)