Sky Of Red Poppies - Excerpt From 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Entry (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
This story makes me want to read up on the more recent history of Iran, which I will do, but the story itself was okay. I'm not sure what bothers me about it yet, other than the amount of pages the protagonist cried on. There were several moments of beautiful writing sprinkled throughout, perfectly worded observations that had me lingering a little longer on the sentences. The very last paragraph (before the epilogue) was one of them. This was an amazing book and a must read for anyone interested in gender issues of the Middle East, the politics of Iran in the 1970s-1980s, or just a moving coming of age story. Starting when the narrator, Roya, is 16, the book follows her life through a turbulent period of school, friendship with a classmate Shireen, and growing tension within the country as the secret police seem to lurk around every corner. Full of lush detail about family relationships, the modern vs. the traditional, the secular vs. the holy, and even innocence versus knowledge – I was sucked into this book from the get-go. On one hand, there is an element of frustration with Roya as narrator, with the reader wanting to know more about what’s happening the larger world, with the demonstrations and protests and politics, but – to me - the tension of not knowing is part of the whole point. The terror of the unknown and of silence and secrecy and of people disappearing in the night is a huge part of Roya’s world and the secret police’s hold on the country. And there is an awareness that some Roya’s disconnect from the larger world is cultural because as a woman, she is limited from fully exploring the world around her. Part of me raged against these limitations, but that same part of me was a little brokenhearted when Roya’s father, sometimes protective, often intimidating and authoritarian, simply states his job as keeping his children from vanishing. What a world to live in that a parent has to constantly fear their child will ask the wrong question or be in the wrong place and simply disappear. A really moving read that immersed me in a world I won't soon forget.
What do You think about Sky Of Red Poppies - Excerpt From 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Entry (2000)?
only complaint is the typing errors. otherwise it was an incredible tale.
—Claire109
Great book, interesting to learn about Iran during the Shah
—ami
Excellent book. The characters were compelling
—Eliona
