Join our monthly book club for an engaging discussion of our latest selection Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
New members are always welcome. 12 Copies of Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi will be available for check out from the Montrose Library service desk one month prior to the book club meeting date. Please stop by the Montrose Library, email montroselibrary@glendaleca.gov, or call 818-548-2048 to reserve one of the 12 copies. If we run out of copies, you'd like to pick up a copy at another branch, or you prefer a different book format, you may request a copy here https://glac.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S185C1279054.
Book Description:
For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were reading—Pride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolita—their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran.
Nafisi’s account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisi’s class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that preached falsehoods of “the Great Satan,” she decided to let him put Gatsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense.
Azar Nafisi’s luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women’s lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice.
Parking Information: Library parking is available onsite. Parking entrance is behind the Fire Station and Library buildings on Sunset Ave. Visitors receive 3-hour free parking and 15 minutes drop off parking is available in front of the Library. Accessible parking and wheelchair ramp is available in the parking lot. For additional information about this event, please contact Montrose Library at 818-548-2048 or send us an email at LibraryInfo@GlendaleCA.gov
We welcome persons with disabilities to participate in all our programs and events. For accommodations requests, please email LibraryInfo@GlendaleCA.gov
The Montrose Library, located on the east end of the Montrose Shopping Park, is a classic neighborhood branch library with materials and activities for adults, teens and children. Programs include adult activity based social clubs, teen volunteer programs and children's storytimes. The 1961 building offers a lot of natural light and includes a quiet room in the adult fiction area.
