The Lion Women of Tehran
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The Lion Women of Tehran is set in Tehran (duh). It moves across a large swath of time, centered around a female friendship that starts in the 1950s and continues all the way up to today. As the Iranian political landscape changes, the responses of the two women differ, putting a strain on the bffs.
This is a very surface level book. It’s not going to ruffle any feathers. It’s only vaguely political– we get told that the Shah is bad and one of the girls is jazzed about communism but only in theory. I would have loved more actual political context; after reading the whole thing, I didn’t come away with any tangible Iranian history. Instead, the author chose to focus more on the power of friendship itself. I suppose this should be endearing but I didn’t actually buy into their friendship in the first place, mainly because one of the girls was a particularly shitty friend. I kept wanting to tell Homa to ditch Ellie like a hot potato.
I fear I’m playing the comparison game and this book will inevitably fall short every time. Several years ago, I read Reading Lolita in Tehran and it was absolutely phenomenal. Not only did I learn about the impact of the Iranian Revolution and the subsequent Islamic Republic of Iran, I also became deeply invested in the characters. Perhaps with is unfair since Reading Lolita in Tehran is a memoir and therefore much more in-depth, but The Lion Women of Tehran failed to move me in any significant way.
It wasn’t all bad. I like that the author sprinkled in the Persian language. I appreciate that the book covers such a long time period and maintains voices distinct to the characters as they age— their voices and choices grow in a realistic way and their mistakes feel authentic to adolescence. But that’s not really enough for me, so this book receives 2 out of 5 flames. For those in the know, I’d also like to mention that the Behar chapter was super random and unexplored. Very silly goose of the author.
