Disturbing Women

When she was expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the veil, Nafisi chose a few young women students to form a clandestine group to study Western literature in the privacy of her home.

Nafisi divides Reading Lolita into sections according to the major authors they read: Nabokov, Fitzgerald, James, and Austen. Each section discusses that author in detail plus how the specific authors related to current events in Iran in the 1980s and 90s.

Nabokov’s Lolita is about having power over someone and stealing their life. Henry James’s characters are ambiguous, neither right nor wrong, a concept the religious fanatics have trouble with. Jane Austen’s women insist on personal choice despite society’s conventions.  Fitzgerald’s Gatsby is handled differently.  It is discussed in a flashback from when Nafisi was still teaching, and her class put the novel on trial.  One group saw it as evidence of America’s decadence and materialistic values; the other understood the book to talk about the corrupting nature of wealth and loss of dreams.

Now that we are at war with Iran, the book is timely once again. In addition, its indictment of religious extremism is current in a way Nafisi didn’t foresee.

The story starts when alarms go off – phone, civil defense – not just in the US, but all over the world at the same time. Unstoppable, until finally they all do stop exactly together. It doesn’t take long for governments to realize the implications.  What have they been warned of?  What is coming next?

Soon, the initiating signals are traced to China, and its government and the US become the focus of the plot. When things escalate and elevators around the world are stopped mid-floor then dropped, killing hundreds of thousands, the race is on to discover the villain.  We see the inner workings of both Chinese and US governments as each president agonizes over who to trust – in the other country and at home

A part of the story focuses on the terra cotta warriors discovered in a tomb in Xi’an, China, in 1974, where the authors take poetic license to imagine its inside (maybe too much).  And it wouldn’t be a Louise Penny book if there wasn’t lots of good food – coconut buns, scones with clotted cream, hole-in-the-wall noodle shops, food writers, all playing a starring role.

Like other books that have come my way recently, the story starts with a focus on powerful men, then slowly shifts to the unnoticed women behind the scenes. An additional subject is a fraught mother-daughter relationship. There is a lot going on here.

There are an enormous number of twists and turns.  Mandarin wasn’t my favorite Penny book, but then I’m not a thriller fan and I missed the softening effect of Gamache and Three Pines.

Years ago, the partners took a risk and accepted shares of a bitcoin company in payment for services. Now, to their astonishment, the shares are worth millions, and they have decided to cash in.

When one of the two is killed, and the other, the best man of Joyce’s new son-in-law, disappears, the four members of the Thursday Murder Club reunite to find the two lost halves of the combination and find the killer.

A strong sub plot involves Ron’s daughter who finally leaves her violent abusive husband.  Another centers on Ibrahim who counsels ex-fraudster/dealer/prisoner Connie, who at the same time is mentoring a hustling “protégé.”  Elizabeth, possibly still an MI6 secret agent, is starting to recover from the death of her beloved husband.  Retired nurse Joyce, so sensitive to the needs of others, clashes with her daughter, newly married Joanna.

Osman strikes just the right lighthearted tone. He brings all the plots together in a satisfying conclusion as four endearing people work out family complexities while they “solve the case.” 

Most readers agreed: “It was the best of tines; it was the worst of tines…”