Reading "Reading Lolita In Tehran" Out of Order

One of the most unique aspects of the novel Reading Lolita in Tehran is the nonlinear literary structure it is written in. This structure is also what happens to make the novel quite difficult to read, as it weaves in and out of decades, juxtaposes several completely distinct and isolated ideas, and brings certain sets of characters to the foreground at one point in time only to fade them out a couple pages later and then discuss them a hundred pages later as if they had never left. The reader really has to make an effort to keep up. But the price is not paid in vain. Though daunting, if a reader is able to understand and embrace the nonlinear narrative structure which Azar Nafisi so beautifully utilized in Reading Lolita in Tehran, he or she will in turn unlock many mysteries about the nature of memory and human consciousness.

The essence of nonlinear narrative structure is the intentional abandonment of conventional chronological sequencing of events in a story. Common side effects of nonlinear narrative structure include disjointed events, parallel distinctive story lines, and frequent changes of narrator, setting, or time. Below is a flow-chart modeling such a structure:

Flowchart of nonlinear narrative structure

By leap-frogging back and forth between events, leaving the reader to piece together the true order, writers can create a surprisingly accurate simulation of memory. For the same reason that TV shows employ the use of flashbacks and out-of-body narrations from different times, Nafisi’s use of non-chronological storytelling allows the reader to delve into the way she herself emotionally experienced and interpreted the events in the book. This very act is what finally broke the hard shell of a “book” to get at the human who was telling it-- what transformed the novel into a memoir. Just as we discussed with The Things They Carried and The Poisonwood Bible, the emotional truth of a story is much deeper and sometimes the opposite of what the factual truth of the story suggests, and it is the emotional truth that we should always try to understand.

Therefore, I would like to rescind all my mumbled hateful comments about how difficult and cumbersome you book memoir was to read, Ms. Nafisi, and would instead like to thank you for showing me so effortlessly what you felt.