Author Cyrus Kadivar gives us a fascinating account of the last days of Pahlavi rule in Iran in his new book, “Farewell Shiraz: An Iranian Memoir of Revolution and Exile.” He left Iran at the age of 16, during the 1979 revolution, for a life of exile. He has felt caught “between a deep nostalgia for yesterday’s Iran and today’s unfulfilled dreams” ever since. For years, he was obsessed with the desire to understand what caused the 1979 revolution and how the founding of the Islamic Republic put an end to centuries of monarchic rule.
His interest in Iran’s history led him to write articles for both Iranian and Western publications. When he turned 37, the editor of “The Iranian,” a popular online magazine for Persians emigres, suggested that he should travel to Egypt to share his thoughts about Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s final resting place.
“I jumped at the idea,” Kadivar wrote. In October 1999, he flew to the country that had taken in the Pahlavi family 20 years previously. The shah had been welcomed by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and, according to the author, “Richard Nixon was reportedly impressed by Sadat’s noble gesture for his friend and he believed that the way the US government treated the shah was unforgivable.”
Kadivar added: “The shah’s exile and his death in Egypt had transfigured him in a way that prevented a critical but balanced assessment of his life and achievements.” During a visit to Cairo’s Rifa’i Mosque, where the shah lies in a temporary burial chamber, Kadivar kept asking himself: “How did we lose our country?”
Upon leaving the mosque, a poor man came up to Kadivar. He refused the alms given to him and, looking straight into his eyes, told him: ”Nobody should be buried away from the country of his birth. Insh’Allah, your shah will one day be reburied in Iran. On that day, you will find your country again.”
“Inside me, something had been unlocked. I realized that despite the years of soul-searching, I had not been able to properly mourn all that had been lost. Nostalgia for a forgotten world and my beloved city of Shiraz flooded my senses,” the author wrote.
The search for a vanished world begins in Shiraz, the city of fragrant roses, splendid sun and refreshing breezes streaming from the purple-tinted Zagros Mountains. It is a city where the author spent a happy childhood surrounded by his parents and loving grandparents. His grandfather knew Shiraz when there was little to do but under the new rule of Reza Shah, life was better.
When Reza Shah Pahlavi’s predecessor, Ahmad Shah, was deposed by parliamentary vote in October 1925, the elite, the clergy and the majority of Iranians voted in favor of the monarchy because they believed a republic might create instability and disunity. On April 1926, Reza Shah Pahlavi was crowned “Shahanshah” — the king of kings in English — in the Golestan Palace in the presence of his six-year-old son and future heir, Mohammed Reza.
Reza Shah, an admirer of Turkey’s Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, declared that all men not serving in the military, especially civil servants, must discard their old clothes and adopt Western dress. A new law also ordered every citizen to adopt a new surname devoid of lengthy titles. The author’s grandfather eventually chose the name “Kadivar,” meaning a country squire in English.
During World War II, Reza Shah’s support for the Axis powers caused his downfall. He was forced to abdicate and his son, Mohammed Reza, was sworn in as the new shah by Iran’s parliament. He eventually appointed Mohammed Mosaddegh as prime minister — a formidable character and brilliant orator who nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and was overthrown in a coup d’état aided by the CIA in 1953. From that day onwards, “Mohammed Reza Shah was determined to rule as an absolute monarch,” Kadivar wrote.
However, trouble was on the horizon as in the late 1970s, a friend of the Kadivar family shocked them when he said “there are going to be major changes in Iran if your king continues the way he’s going. Things will not stay like this forever. All appears calm on the surface now, but it could suddenly change overnight.”
A year later, the situation got worse. There were frequent demonstrations. The shah’s personality seemed eclipsed by Ayatollah Khomeini’s personality and, eventually, the shah left for Egyot in January 1979.
The book features an interview with Hossein Amirsadeghi, whose father was the shah’s chauffeur and the first to announce the news of the shah’s departure. “If the king and his supporters had shown more resolve, we would not have lost our country,” he told Kadivar. This belief was also shared by the author’s father who could not understand why the shah failed to take the decision to restore his authority.
After revolutionaries stormed the author’s father’s office following the revolution, he returned home and told his family that “Iran is no longer a country for a young man. We have to get out. It’s for the best.”
Looking back on those events, many believe that a combination of bad decisions made by the imperial regime caused the demise of the monarchy. Kadivar also reminds us that in May 1980, two months after his arrival in Egypt, the shah gave an interview to the Washington Post in which he acknowledged that trusting the Americans and the English had cost him his throne.
This riveting memoir is marked by its sincerity and elegance. It expresses the author’s feelings and efforts to overcome the pain of leaving his beloved country. His last words call for “a truly free nation where nobody lives in fear, where truth, not falsehood, is a virtue.”
Book Review: Dreams of a forgotten childhood in Shiraz
Book Review: Dreams of a forgotten childhood in Shiraz
What We Are Reading Today: Out of One, Many
Author: Jennifer T. Roberts
Covering the whole of the ancient Greek experience from its beginnings late in the third millennium BCE to the Roman conquest in 30 BCE, “Out of One, Many” is an accessible and lively introduction to the Greeks and their ways of living and thinking. In this fresh and witty exploration of the thought, culture, society, and history of the Greeks, Jennifer Roberts traces not only the common values that united them across the seas and the centuries, but also the enormous diversity in their ideas and beliefs.
Examining the huge importance to the Greeks of religion, mythology, the Homeric epics, tragic and comic drama, philosophy, and the city-state, the book offers shifting perspectives on an extraordinary and astonishingly creative people.
Century after century, in one medium after another, the Greeks addressed big questions, many of which are still very much with us, from whether gods exist and what happens after we die to what political system is best and how we can know what is real. Yet for all their virtues, Greek men set themselves apart from women and foreigners and profited from the unpaid labor of enslaved workers, and the book also looks at the mixed legacy of the ancient Greeks today.
The result is a rich, wide-ranging, and compelling history of a fascinating and profoundly influential culture in all its complexity—and the myriad ways, good and bad, it continues to shape us today.
What We Are Buying Today: ‘If Cats Disappeared from the World’
- Beautifully written and emotionally moving, it is also a testament to the power of storytelling and reminds people of the deep impact of making personal choices and connections
Author: Genki Kawamura
“If Cats Disappeared from the World” is a novel written by Japanese author Genki Kawamura. The book was published in 2012 and was rated 4/5 by over 75,000 readers worldwide.
Kawamura is a worldwide bestselling author. “If Cats Disappeared from the World” was his first novel, which sold over 1 million copies in Japan and was translated into over 14 languages.
In this novel, Kawamura tells the story of a postman who is diagnosed with an uncurable illness. However, when he accepts his destiny, the Devil appears to him with an unusual proposal. The postman must choose one thing to eliminate from this world for him to live one more day. During his journey, the postman then starts examining the true value of everything he owns.
Kawamura’s writing style is simple yet evocative, inviting readers to dive deep into the layers of their own emotional journey with every page. The narrative provides a delicate balance between moments of happiness and sorrow, using cats as a symbol of companionship and joy.
Moreover, the book allows readers to reflect on the value of relationships and experiences. It raises questions regarding the decisions people make, the legacies they leave behind, and the core meaning of everyday moments, which eventually shape people’s characters and how they think.
The novel encourages people to take a deep breath and reflect on the blessings people have, yet neglect, due to their busy lives.
With Kawamura’s thoughtful message and memorable characters, this novel is a compelling exploration of the human experience, providing comfort and inspiration, and a new appreciation for the beauty and brevity of life.
Beautifully written and emotionally moving, it is also a testament to the power of storytelling and reminds people of the deep impact of making personal choices and connections.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Chinese Espresso’ by Grazia Ting Deng
Italians regard espresso as a quintessentially Italian cultural product—so much so that Italy has applied to add Italian espresso to UNESCO’s official list of intangible heritages of humanity. In this book, Grazia Ting Deng explores the paradox of “Chinese Espresso”— the fact that this most distinctive Italian social and cultural tradition is being preserved by Chinese immigrants and their racially diverse clientele.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Bartleby and Me’
Writers love to write about writing and none seemingly more so than Gay Talese, the journalist known as a pioneer of the American literary moment called “New Journalism.” This style of writing originated in the 1960s and ‘70s and combines journalistic research with creative non-fiction.
Talese started his career as an obituary writer at the New York Times and, later, as a magazine writer who ended up reluctantly penning the most widely read magazine articles of all time. He showcases some of that editorial wisdom — and reporting mishaps — in his 2023 book, “Bartley and Me: Reflections of an Old Scrivener.”
Now 92 years old, he writes vividly about his early reporting days and the stories behind the stories; he masterfully weaves in stray strands that somehow come together into a coherent narrative. Talese writes crisp copy. He writes about nobodies and somebodies with equal fervor.
He recalls his time as a young reporter on assignment where, at the insistence of his persistent editor, he attempted to sit down for an interview with the elusive and super-famous star Frank Sinatra. Talese recounts how he repeatedly tried — and failed — to pin down “Ol’ Blue Eyes” while chasing him around California in the 1960s. He eventually published his distinctively titled profile, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” in the April 1966 issue of Esquire. That piece of writing is considered one of the most celebrated pieces of magazine journalism to date.
Talese’s tales are mostly centered around his time in New York. He recalls things in meticulous detail — for example, pointing out the exact address and precise building within a neighborhood to help the reader visualize the space. The city is always a leading part of the story.
“New York is a city of things unnoticed,” he wrote 60 years ago, something that could easily be written today. He recalls the early days of his journalistic career in New York, churning out newspaper copy and still, now, being ever-so-curious about everything. The pages of this book show that we all, alongside him, still have much more to notice.
The title of the book was inspired by American author Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” published in the 1800s. This is a social criticism piece about a lawyer who hires a peculiar scrivener or clerk, Bartleby, and the adventures (or misadventures) that ensue.
In his version, Talese shares with us a fresh piece of original reporting titled “Dr. Bartha’s Brownstone,” which is his version of “Bartleby.” This time, however, Bartleby is an unknown doctor who makes his bombastic mark on the city one random summer day. It is a brilliant piece of journalism about journalism.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Proof Stage’ by Stephen Abbott
The discovery of alternate geometries, paradoxes of the infinite, incompleteness, and chaos theory revealed that, despite its reputation for certainty, mathematical truth is not immutable, perfect, or even perfectible.
Beginning in the last century, a handful of adventurous playwrights took inspiration from the fractures of modern mathematics to expand their own artistic boundaries.
