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I had trouble finishing this book, stopping and starting many times. I had trouble relating to the main character and eventually came to dislike her.

I loved this - it gives a very realistic portrait of the expatriate experience.

A fun, quick read, the setting of the novel is what really makes it interesting - late 1970s Iran, just prior to the Islamic Revolution. Kind of chick lit meets historical fiction.

Took me a while to get into the story, not sure why, after all this is Iran, old Persia, and the culture is interesting. Maybe it's because the characters don't seem to care for the culture shock bona fide travelers must encounter in Iran. Maybe because the characters whom I associate with bourgeois academia elude me—these folks are here for work, not the open-minded curious travelers some of us are. Everyone (the expats from the West) is having a hushed affair or guarding some secret but it's hard to see why I should care—until the very end when, just as in a Sam Peckinpah film, the bullets fly, the violence hits the fan. I liked this novel much better than the author's bestselling Le Divorce, which I could not finish.

I feel kind of apathetic toward this book; it's interesting to read about pre-revolution Iran, but the characters are difficult to like -- and the only one I was able to warm to gets killed somewhat arbitrarily about 3/4s of the way in, to no real purpose. The writing is interesting, and I guess it says something that I actually finished it, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone.

Plopped down in Iran, unexpectedly on her own, Chloe's personal exploration and discovery, and the turbulence of Iran on the verge of revolution, unfold and intertwine together.

Challenges:
Book #185 for 2011
Book #103 for Off the Shelf!

I am not sure why I finished this book. I think I was hoping it would somehow get interesting, but it failed miserably. I had very little connection with the main character and did not find the extramarital affairs or justification of them very appealing. It was a weird book with little plot which dragged on forever!

Such a good book, I can see why it was nominated for a Pulitzer. I loved the characters and what Americans felt like living in Iran under the Shah. Chloe was an interesting main character and I wonder what happened after she returned to America. That was the only disappointing part of the book was what transpired after the Americans returned to the States.

Ughh... mediocre smut. Never really picks up. Story of a pampered, idiot, upper middle class, bored housewife who somehow ends up affair-ing her way across Iran. Read about half, paged through the rest and then chucked it.

88 finalist-pulitzer prize