Product Description

Gifted journalist Gelareh Asayesh writes indelibly of her struggle to balance an Iranian childhood with her adult life in America.


"A brave and beautifully written memoir that should be read by all who seek to understand Iran, America, or the divided life of the exile. Rarely have the enduring questions of time, place, faith, and identity been explored with such an array of amazing images.
-Tom Drury, author of The Black Brook

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266143 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-19
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 222 pages

From Library Journal
This lyrical memoir revisits still-important questions about immigration, race, and cultural assimilation. Aseyesh, a journalist at the Miami Herald, emigrated from Iran to the United States as a young girl; now married and a parent, she finds herself mourning the loss of her old self and angry at Americans' anti-Iranian racism. Moving back and forth between past and present, she chronicles her life as a series of trips to and from IranAas a child who spoke no English, on the eve of the 1992 Gulf War as a green card-holding adult, and as the parent of a young biracial American citizenAand in doing so, tells the story of both her family's and Iran's tumultuous recent history. This beautifully written narrative provides a rare, humanizing glimpse into the politics, culture, and geography of a place about which most Americans know shamefully little. Although slow-moving and seemingly plotless at times, this is for the most part a wonderful and timely tale. Recommended strongly for all libraries.ARachel Mattson, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
To have the spiritual culture of the East and the material luxuries of the West may seem like paradise, but Asayesh has spent her life trying to acclimate herself to such a situation--to be accepted in St. Petersburg, Florida, and to retain the language, religion, rituals, and ceremonies of Iran. As a girl and young woman, Asayesh longed to be considered cultivated and Western as opposed to the Eastern stereotype of backward and primitive. Now, in her thirties and a mother of two, she has maintained an Iranian culture within an American home. Asayesh reveals not only the prejudice she has faced in the U.S., but she explains how Iranians view their culture as inferior to that of the West. Asayesh draws from her childhood during the Shah's reign to objectively compare life in Iran before and after the 1978 revolution. She is even critical of herself. This emotional biographical journey is Asayesh's reclaiming of her heritage, a part of herself that she abandoned years ago. It is politically and historically informative and will help bridge the gap between East and West for many readers. Michelle Kaske

From Kirkus Reviews
The vibrant, discerning memoir of a young newspaper journalist which depicts her immigration from Iran in 1977, her assimilation into American culture as a teenager, and her return to her native country in October 1990 as war loomed over the Persian Gulf. What makes this work particularly effective is the manner in which Asayesh weaves her keen reporter's eye for objective detail with her almost poetic ability to describe and analyze her own emotional connection to the story. Her first-hand accounts of post-revolution Iran are as meticulous and perceptive as they are rare. With equal fascination, she describes revolutionary graffiti demanding the destruction of Israel and the end of women dressing in violation of religious law, military recruiting propaganda clips shown before movies, and her young relatives fascination with American superstars like Madonna and Kim Wild. She resolves the tension dividing the Iranian population between the religious government and modern cosmopolitan ways into womens daily, sometimes hourly choice of headgear (should they wear the more fashionable, modern-looking scarf, or the more traditional chador which will keep them from drawing attention from the religious police?). The heart of this memoir, however, is set in America, not Iran. Asayeshs depiction of growing up in Chapel Hill and her attempt to negotiate her sexuality while caught between two worlds evokes a familiar theme of many immigrants arriving here from ``traditional'' cultures. Co- workers reactions to her ethnicity will not surprise the millions of Arabic-Americans who have fallen under a cloud of suspicion since the fall of the Shah in the 1970s. Her ongoing attempt to forge a living connection between her home country and her new identity as an American is a well-crafted rearticulation of the central theme of immigrant literature the world over. An especially topical read considering the ongoing tension between the United States and much of the Arab world. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Story
I read this book in one weekend and found it difficult to put down. The author's wonderful use of description and reflection made me feel as if I were on a journey with her, traveling back and forth between America and Iran. It seems to me that the sense of disconnection the author describes can resonate on many different levels, even for those of us born and raised in the States.

Great Copy
To See and See Again: A Life in Iran and America
Persian Girls: A Memoir
Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America

The books came in great condition. Funny in Farsi is the most hilarious book I've read in a while and really portrays the experience of growing up Iranian in America. I am now reading Saffron Sky and have not read the others yet.

An absolutely beautiful, soul-penetrating work of art
This book is presented as a collection of reminiscences from girlhood and womanhood between Iran and America. Gelareh Asayesh shares the inward labors of carrying two great yet incompatible cultures in her soul. Every vignette is a gem to admire at length, to laugh, cry or sigh over before even moving on to the next page.

I picked up this book after enduring a heartwrenching goodbye with a compassionate Iranian woman of this same generation who felt that we could never last as a couple with our different cultural backgrounds. As an American, I truly believe that it's impossible for me to understand Iran. This book won't change that; it won't change you into somebody who knows and will even reiterate the futility of trying. But you will be left with a very emotional and meaningful sense of a world you CANNOT know.