Good background through 2000 and on Iranian culture and pride. Makes me want to read a follow-up to current Iranian politics and public opinion - can anyone recommend one??

This is a well written book that really brings out the complications of life in Iran. It blows away the stereotypes we generally have for these people. Of course, recent changes make the information dated but it was a great glimpse into a world I did not know existed.

For some reason Iran really interests me and this book really added to that. Easy to read and very interesting, though a lot has changed since the book was originally published.

Very readable, but it really suffered by being very out of date. Other reviews have mentioned a 2006 afterword, but the copy I read must be an older edition, since it didn't have that. And even if it did, that would still be 10 years ago anyway.

So far, so good!

Excellent - read this many years ago and should re-read

This book gives a deep picture of life in Iran with all its contrasts. She speaks about society and all its parts and helped me understand what makes up the Iranian psyche.

Any journalist who covers a region for years no doubt ends up with reams of ephemera, countless anecdotes and many thoughts about the culture. This is Sciolino's compilation of those, organized in an intelligent, compelling form that puts each meeting with a mullah or visit to a private women's aerobics class in a larger cultural context. It was published in 2000, which means that the context has changed, but the overall portrait Sciolino paints--of a country marked by delightful and confounding contradictions, a place where laws are strict and arbitrary, but privacy and poetry are sacred--probably transcends decades. There wasn't anything I really disliked about this book, but since there's not a real narrative, I gave myself permission to quit two thirds of the way through, after I'd maxed out on library renewals.

This very readable work provides a first-hand account of the Ayatollah Khomeini's rise to power as well as a look at modern day Iranian culture and politics.

This is a really interesting book about recent Iranian history from an American reporter who has covered Iran for a couple decades (including having interviewed the most important leaders and clerics from the Islamic Revolution). Unfortunately, the book was written in 2000 and, given today's political climate in Iran and the US, a little overly optimistic on the future of Iran's reform movement and reconciliation with the United States. Still, it gives you a bit of an idea what life is like inside the Islamic Republic - worth a read if you're curious about Iran.

If you want to understand the Iranian people and the history of our relations - both culturally and politically - read this book.

Interesting insight in Iranian history and culture.