Pub date: September 8, 2015
232 pages
Source: Netgalley
A moving tale of exile, friendship, and love from the bestselling
author of Pomegranate Soup.
In the wake of the Iranian revolution, Zadi Heirati, a single mother,
flees to Buenos Aires with her young daughter. She decides to do what she knows
best and opens a beauty salon, but as she meets her new neighbors and discovers
their shared passion for poetry, the idea develops into much more than a job.
The inhabitants of her apartment building form an eclectic community: a sick
ex-prisoner and his daughter; a promising medical student; a timid hairdresser;
a newlywed couple with a dark past; a young revolutionary; an eccentric pilgrim
of Mecca; and at the heart of the group, Zadi, whose humble small business
becomes a spiritual hub where she hosts weekly readings of Persian poetry.
Drawn together by the revolution in their homeland, these neighbors
share words that inspire each to turn inward and discover beauty long buried.
At once familiar and extraordinary, this story weaves disparate lives together
into a tapestry of unique grace, wit, and lyricism.
Imagine coming upon Da Vinci's Mona Lisa in an unfinished
state – perhaps a third of the details are sketched out, but not fully rendered
with brushstrokes. Yet, you can still see without a doubt the lady's beauty,
her mysterious smile, the grace of her hands. You can only visualize what the
painting would look like in its finished state, but you can conclude from what
was set down on canvas how breathtaking the whole would have been.
That scenario is how I can best describe The SaturdayNight School of Beauty by Marsha Mehran. It contains so many passages that
excited me – beautiful, heartbreaking, profound, shocking, memorable.
Often-times I would have to read some parts over again because they moved me. I
love the narrative format of the book, which interweaves the background stories
of Persian expatriates in Buenos Aires who come together for weekly poetry
night. They recite and passionately discuss the Koran, Rumi, Hafez, and other
poets, often illuminating the characters' psyches.
"What happened to people when they began to revolt,
to change from within, and to become something else. That was why he loved poetry. What really drew him to the words. He understood those lines that called to
him. Revolt, the turn in a turn."
Mehran alternates from these poetry nights to exploring
the haunting pasts of each character and what drove them from Iran to
Argentina. These chapters are just as riveting as the poetry scenes, in that I
felt immersed in Persian culture.
Mehran's writing is as lyrical as the mystical poetry her
characters discuss.
However, there are some uneven sections in the book. Some
characters' backgrounds and plots don't feel fully fleshed out. Sometimes, a
chapter will start delving into one character only to abruptly switch to
another character's narrative. This was puzzling, as it was obvious to me how
gifted and skillful the writer seemed. I got my answer when I read the
heartbreaking foreword by the author's father. It seems Marsha Mehran died
before completing the book and her father did the best he could to get it in a
publishable state.
If you liked Reading Lolita in Tehran, you must read TheSaturday Night School of Beauty.
Marsha Mehran (1977-2014) was born in Tehran, Iran, left during the
Revolution, at age 2, with her family. She then lived in such diverse places as
Buenos Aires, The United States, Australia and Ireland. Marsha's talent and wit
was evident from an early age: she became fluent in speaking Farsi, Spanish and
English at age 6; she was identified as a gifted child at age 8 in The USA; and
she excelled at learning to play the piano, nurturing her musical talent at the
Elder Conservatory of Music in Adelaide. Her first book, Pomegranate Soup,
published in 2005, was translated into 15 languages and published in more than
20 countries. The continuation, Rosewater and Soda Bread, was a hit sequel in
Marsha's vision for a series of seven books. The third title, Pistachio Rain,
was scheduled for publication in 2014 but disrupted by her demise in April that
year. Her stand-alone book has been published in Australia and New Zealand, by
Harper Collins, as The Margaret Thatcher School of Beauty and by Amazon
Crossing as The Saturday Night School of Beauty. Marsha Mehran passed away,
lonely, in Ireland in her Lecanvey cottage in 2014 at the age of 36. She leaves
behind a literary legacy that will continue to thrive in her legion of fans
across the globe.
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