The Lion Women of Tehran

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali, 327 pages

When the death of her father forced 7-year-old Ellie and her mother to move from the lap of luxury to a tiny, downtrodden home in downtown Tehran, Ellie finds solace in her new friend, Homa. As they grow up, Ellie and her mother return to a comfy lifestyle, while Homa's rebellious father languishes in prison, keeping Homa's family in poverty. Reconnecting as they prepare for university, Ellie and Homa have very different goals for their college years — Ellie wants to get an education, sure, but mainly find a husband, while Homa is determined to bring on a feminist revolution, becoming a judge and helping promote women's rights in Tehran. When political turmoil erupts in Tehran, a betrayal drives the two friends apart for decades, and both must come to grips with their past and their role in Iran as it is.

This is a wonderfully written story of Iran in the second half of the 20th Century, as seen through the eyes of two very different women. They're both relatable, complex characters with understandable motivations and fears. I loved this book and will be recommending it widely.

The Complete Stories / Clarice Lispector, translated from Portuguese by Katrina Dodson, 645 pp.

Lispector (1920-1977)  is widely considered "the premier Latin American woman prose writer" (NYT), but I bet most Americans have never heard of her.  I certainly had not until I came across this collection, the first time her stories have been published in one volume in any language.  

In this case the psychedelic cover art is telling; Lispector's prose is unapologetically strange, if magnetic.  These stories open up interior experiences, mostly of women, at all stages of life: young newlyweds with sexual anxieties, elderly women grappling with sexual desire that no one wants, wealthy women confronting the poor and sick for the first time.  

I have to confess that I often couldn't penetrate these highly idiosyncratic points of view.  Frequently the stories lack a narrative arc that I could recognize, and even more difficult is Lispector's strange syntax and punctuation: "Only this: it is raining and I am watching the rain.  What simplicity.  I never thought that the world and I would reach this point of wheat."  (From Such Gentleness)  I wish I could understand 'point of wheat.'  Or: "Water, despite being wet  par excellence, is. Writing is.  But style is not.  Having breasts is.  The male organ is too much." (From Report on the Thing)

Still.  There were many stories that stunned me with their perfect depictions of psychological states, and her writing is certainly a refreshing mental experience.