Things I’ve Been Silent About: Memories by Azar Nafisi will transplant you into the body of an Iranian woman as she travels through the turmoil within her family life and country. It’s about struggle. In this complicated narrative, Nafisi peppers her story with historical information about her country, and the changes it undergoes in her lifetime, and she uses reoccurring images/themes to tie it all into a cohesive, touching whole.
The first section titled “family fictions,” provides the basis for her tumultuous family life, and several references later call the reader back to this theme and thus, this scene. All the stories Nafisi’s father tells her from the Shanameh. All the lies Nafisi’s mother tells herself. All the falsehoods her father weaves disguising the dishonor in his actions.
Despite the rocking standing of their relationship, Nafisi’s mother feels the need to keep the family afloat. Her coffee sessions speak to this desire to control, to oversee, and gather the family as a unit—something Nafisi holds onto as an adult.
From photos to alterations in government, outside sources are featured throughout, and only becomes an issue a couple of times when too much information is provided in several pages. Other than that, the varying themes and blended facts work well. Any issues are minor in comparison to what the tale offers.
Though unique to the location where Nafisi grew up, the issues within her family, and her desires to escape, are so relatable you will forget any differences. Each separate aspect in this story blends into the next. For women from another culture, this book is a view into another world, and it makes the complicated seem simple via truth and the echoes of that truth, which are so resonant.
