Iran literature, society,rich culture unknown to Americans

I stumbled upon this text rather unexpectedly, but the premise intrigued me enough to push it straight to the top of my reading list. After spending some time with this book, I cannot help but feel slightly let down by it.
Other reviewers have already mentioned some of the potential issues here: a rather clumsy prologue sets us up for a scattershot approach to critiquing New Orientalism through memoir and literary criticism. While the prose improves significantly after the frankly bumbling introduction, and though the memories of various family members provide some beautiful and interesting portraits, they end up feeling rather limited, dare I say nostalgically rosy. And that, in fact, permeates the description of Iran as a whole.
Without a doubt, Keshavarz set out to provide a counternarrative to Nafisi's Iran, which is perfectly fine and, indeed, necessary. However, setting up a white fram next to a black one does not create a full picture. The most glaring example, for me, is the chapter on Parsipur's 'Women without men'. Keshavarz does an admirable job describing the novel's many characters and symbolic power, trumpeting it as a feminist tour-de-force of Iranian fiction. She does not, however, waste any words on the effect this had on Parsipur's life and livelihood, the persecution she had to endure, and the reason for her eventual exile. Indeed, the fact that this book was banned in Iran gets a most fleeting mention somewhere between two plot points. AS such, thsi book can at times feel intellectually dishonest, guilty of the same corruption as the very book it is critiquing.

That being said, I think Jasmine and Stars has its heart int he right place, and besides its almost 40-page beatdown of Reading Lolita in Tehran, it features some wonderful discussions of Persian literature and Islamic tradition and culture that are well worth your time despite the rose-colored glasses. Indeed, it would've been nice to see Keshavarz flesh out these themes more; it seems like she is perpetually in a rush to move us to the next topic, making this book feel like a review of Reading Lolita in Tehran with a bunch of digressions put in to pad the book. That cannot have been the intent. At the very least, in my case, Keshavarz has achieved her objective, as I have found more candles to illuminate the elephant, and for that I am appreciative.

A very insightful critique of the New Orientalist authors and novels, that paint a very one-sided, manipulative image of present-day Iran, and deals with a lot of the misinformation that permeates these books, with a special focus on Reading Lolita in Tehran. Admittedly i hadn't caught onto most of these points when i read Reading Lolita in Tehran myself, but now that it was pointed out, the books does suddenly seem a lot less trustworthy, and factually incorrect.

Jasmine and Stars tries to remedy the bad-rap that the new orientalists gives Iran and its people, and it does a good job at this.

I'm hoping I can pull a review together...but I have to return the book today. :/

I liked the book but..

The book is a long academic essay, it's not a novel. Don't bother picking it up if you haven't read Reading Lolita in Tehran, because it would leave you puzzled.

The author main goal is to prove her thesis, warn the reader against the danger of new-orientalist writers. I do agree with this and I tend to stay away from American-Othernationality writers, as they tend to represent one side of the story only, the bad and ugly one. However, I finished RLT with the desire of reading more about Iran, and I did.

Jasmine and Stars is a well written (and narrated in the audiobook by Fatemeh herself) and methodical book. Opposite to RLT, it only presents the good side of Iran and its people, which is nice to know of, but equally unlikely compared to Nafisi all-muslim-man-are-bad RLT.

Both are personal experience based works, wannabe the truth about Iran. The reader shouldn't fall in the trap to consider any of them the "true" side of Iran.

Jasmine and Stars felt initially like a rant, but then I picked up interest in Keshavarz's life. I think I would have truly enjoyed a book from the author more on the style of a memoire. She could have succeeded in proving her thesis and convincing the reader about the complexity and multicoloured Iranian society and literary scene, through a "new" book. A book that wouldn't rely on the direct antagonism to RLT and detailed criticism, which resulted a bit heavy.

Finally, I don't see why Nafisi is to blame for preferring foreign writers to Iranian and Persian ones; maybe my memory fails me, but I don't recall her claiming there is no good Persian writer, she just neglects them as personal preference. If you ask me who are the current top five writers in Italy, I wouldn't have a clue (it's irrelevant, I know I'm not a public figure). I don't blame Nafisi for being bitter about Islam either, I think it is only natural that based on her beliefs or non-beliefs she has lived the revolution and post revolution years in a specific way, that is in contrast with Keshavarz one, and only wishes to share how Iran failed her. Lastly, I think Keshervaz was very lucky to have a painter as an uncle and a poetry lover as a father. It may very well be that this happens more in Iran than elsewhere, this I don't know for sure, but I doubt it's the norm.

Very interesting critique of "Reading Lolita in Tehran". The author who is also Iranian-American and a professor of literature believes that Reading Lolita in Tehran presents a very one-sided view of Iran that is both insulting to the complexities of Iranian culture and dangerous to western readers by presenting Iranians as "other" and "evil".

In the wake of Reading Lolita In Tehran, Keshavarz pushes back against the idea that reading Great Literature is taboo in Iran, that the people are starved for good literature that can only be fulfilled by reading Western writers. She blends a beautiful personal narrative with an uncovering of Iranian poets and writers that give non-Iranian readers an insight into what we're missing out, when what we see lauded are books that continue to paint the region as culturally-backward. Keshavarz also coins the term " NewOrientalist" to describe the position of the native insider who lends an air of authenticity to representations of the Other, representations which are no more nuanced and no less condescending of the local than the colonizer's POV.

Fatemeh Keshavarz's Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran rebukes Azar Nefisi and other writers for contributing to a 'new Orientalism' that looks at Iran only as a place inferior to the west. The author opens Jasmine and Stars with a reminiscence of her summers spent in Shiraz. Growing up, Keshavarz's family spent the nights outside, bringing out wooden cots so they could fall asleep to the view of the glittering stars above, and wake up to the smell of jasmine flowers that her grandmother used during her morning prayers. As exquisite as these summers could be, there was a moment of gloom: the annual migration of grasshoppers. Their migrating mass blocked the starlight and threatened the fields, and some lollygaggers would fall from the skies and litter the yard. Most of the literature westerners read about Iran or the middle east -- Reading Lolita, Tehran Honeymoon, The Kite Runner -- focus on the transient grasshoppers, with nary a mention made of the beauty around them. In response, Keshavarz simultaneously provides tales of jasmine and stars -- recollections from her youth, mixed in with reflections on Persian literature -- and directly critiques the substance of Reading Lolita in Tehran.

Her greatest problem with RLT is the depiction of literature as something foreign, as though Nefisi's literature circle created the only opportunity for her students to ever encounter thoughtful literature. Keshavarz holds that there is no culture on Earth more passionate about its literature, or literature in general, than the Persian people. As illustration, she discusses many works, only one of which (Rumi's poetry) has any name recognition in the west. She also points to the enormous popularity of particular authors and poets, most of whom have produced literature the authorities would not endorse, but do not oppress. The Persia of her youth, and the Persia she visits regularly today, is one that engages with literature and arts constantly -- filling public theaters. Similarly, Keshavarz contends that the depiction of Iranians in literature like RLT is simplistic: the women are naive, and the men all knuckle-dragging tyrants. As a counter, she recalls many stories about extraordinary men and women she knew in Iran, and continues to visit - stern military officers who spent their nights painting, and of an illiterate peasant farmer who so loved a particular poet that he committed her every verse to memory.

Jasmine and Stars is a fascinating little mix of literary reflection, criticism, and memoir that provides readers with a welcome view of Iran beyond its political structure.

2.5⭐️
Автор критикует другую книгу (под авторством Нафизи), пересказывает содержание мистической новеллы иранского/персидского автора-женщины и рассказывает о своей семье и детстве в Ширазе, пытаясь дать читателю «правильный» взгляд на Иран.
Для меня это сработало бы гораздо лучше по отдельности: критическое эссе, автобиографические зарисовки и рекомендация книги иранского автора.
А так Кешаварз стоит на плечах других авторов, опираясь на чужие тексты в каждом абзаце. Подробный пересказ сюжета другой книги? Серьезно?
Критика, основанная на сплошных эмоциях? Как можно всерьез относиться к критике работы Нафиси в следующем ключе: у всех шум за окном - это символ текущей жизни, а вот ей [Нафиси] оттуда слышится детский шум и зов их матерей с угрозами о наказании за непослушание. Солнце ей, видите ли, обманчиво светит. И прочее в таком же духе. Странная и даже детская позиция: если наши ощущения и взгляды не совпадают, то у тебя они неправильные.
Рассказы о семье были теплые и полные света и любви. Хотя сравнение обоих дядюшек-военных со святыми смущает, конечно.
Предвзятая работа.

I'm glad to have read this. I've only read free samples of Reading Lolita in Tehran (RLT), which Jasmine and Stars criticizes. But, it will probably be years before I get around to it, and so I'll capture my reactions to this book while they're fresh:

* Jasmine and Stars argues that RLT demonizes Iran and Islam; oversimplifies the complex individuals who make up modern Iran; ignores the country's proud Persian heritage and vibrant modern literary culture; and presents Western literature as a salvation for confused and benighted young Iranians. I'm sure that's not what Azar Nafisi, RLT's author, understood herself to be doing at all. I suspect RLT is better understood as the work of an author who has experienced painful oppression and is writing about how literature has helped her and her students understand their experiences and take greater control of their internal lives.

* Keshavarz's book includes some moving and very personal anecdotes; one of her overt purposes is to offer herself as an alternative window, for an American audience, of what it can mean to be Iranian. She grew up with loving, moderate male relatives, deep exposure to Persian poetry, and no apparent difficulty reconciling (Islamic) faith and modernity. That's great as far as it goes, but doesn't invalidate Nafisi's experience.

* Perhaps more problematically, all of Keshavarz' stories reflect well on herself, which I take as a bit of a red-flag when an author is using techniques of memoir to persuade a reader.

* Keshavarz doesn't address a couple of topics that I wished she had: the distinctions that set Persian culture and faith apart from pan-Islamic culture and religion; and the ways the 1979 Revolution has changed or obliterated aspects of modern Iranian culture and cultural institutions. These might illumine a difference in frame between RLT and Jasmine and Stars. My hunch is that in RLT, Nafisi pours out her scorn on the Revolution in part because of the damage she has seen it do to the Persian cultural heritage and current artists. But Keshavarz appears to read RLT as an attack - or, at least, a dismissal - of not just the Revolution, but of everything Iranian, and I'm wondering how clearly Keshavarz sees the distinction.

* If one discounts Keshavarz' critique as failing to engage RLT on its own terms (and again, I haven't read RLT and so can't tell for certain), Jasmine and Stars still has several points to offer: a picture of Keshavarz' childhood; an introduction to a modern poet (Forough Farrokhzad) and a modern novelist (Shahrnush Parsipar) that Keshavarz reveres; and a reminder of the importance of love as a force that transcends conflict and is very much at home in Persian culture.

This excellent book calls out the "New Orientalist" narratives propagated by the links of Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran and Khalid Hosseini'sThe Kiterunner, stating that they stereotype the people and religion in the countries they represent, as well a privileging Western ideology and norms as superior.

I find this book -- which is a combination of personal memoir and literary analysis -- very engaging. Keshavarz makes her point convincingly and passionately. I believe her when she states that literature and culture is way more complicated that some texts suggest. This is not to say that her argument suddenly changes my mind about liking either Lolita in Tehran or The Kiterunner (both of which I deem excellent books), but Keshavarz is effective in convincing me of the bias these texts contain.

I love the way that this book makes me re-think the Western bias I unconsciously hold when I read texts from other places. As such, I plan to use this book in the college classroom so as to help my college students recognize the same issues.

the book doesn't provide approval or disapproval of any particular group.you can be in agreement or disagreement of diverse political & religious persuations.the good and bad haven't been always on one side. what is happening in the non-western countries, is resulting decades, at times centuries, of unresolved issues. while many local problems are at the root of these issues.