In the Time of Our History - Susanne Pari - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Susanne Pari

NARRATOR: Mozhan Marnò

GENRE: Literary Fiction, Iranian-American Drama.

RATING: 3.75 Stars.

In a Nutshell: An interesting look at the conflicting identities of first and second-generation Irani-Americans. Somewhat predictable, especially for those who have read this genre and are exposed to similar cultures as Yours Truly is. Good for readers who like dysfunctional family dramas.

Story Synopsis:

A year after her younger sister Anahita’s death, Mitra Jahani is back at her parents’ home in New Jersey for the ‘One Year’, an Iranian custom. Anahita had always been sweet and dutiful, while Mitra was the rebel, following her own path than the wishes of her dictatorial father. Mitra’s docile mother Shireen has always found herself caught between her husband and her daughters. Mitra’s return after almost two decades leads to several skeletons tumbling out from the cupboards, making every character wonder if they truly knew the others.

The story comes to us in the third person perspective of various key characters, including the three surviving members of the Jahani family.

Where the book worked for me:

🌷 The three women characters – Shireen, Mitra, and Anahita – are nicely sketched, even if they might not always be likeable. One can perceive the reasons for their behaviour from the content without going into too many assumptions. I liked how each of the three ladies had a strong will, though it might not immediately be obvious. The story reveals Mitra first and then Shireen and Anahita through peeled layers.

🌷 Some of the secondary characters too, though they don’t get much page space, end up as memorable. Olga and Vivian/Vivienne (not sure which spelling applies) were very interesting among these, along with Nasim, the only Irani male character who didn’t fit into a clichéd mould.

🌷 As an OwnVoices work, (the author is a half-Iranian whose parents too fled the 1979 Islamic Revolution) the book shows us amazing glimpses of the Iranian culture, from food to rituals to superstitions.

🌷 The book begins impressively, though it takes some time to get started. The timeline isn’t linear and there are a lot of flashbacks and reminiscences. However, all the backstories work wonderfully in helping us understand characters and their motivations better. (Of course, this approach will work only for those who like character-oriented narratives. Plot-driven book lovers might find this tough to get around.)

🌷 The book explores varied dark themes such as grief, sexual assault, adultery, patriarchy, mental abuse, and parental abuse. It does justice to most. It also depicts the struggles and identity crises of second-gen immigrants, who always have one foot in each culture and end up fitting in neither.

🌷 The writing is truly beautiful, with sentences strung together in ways that made me long for a physical (or even a digital) copy. The biggest issue with audiobooks is that I can’t highlight lines I loved.

🌷 For a story dealing with so many tragedies, the ending is exactly as it is supposed to be, though a bit farfetched. Some loops were resolved, some were left dangling with potential.

🌷 There are some interlude chapters from minor characters which took a bit of getting used to in the audio version, but they boosted the plot well.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

🌵 Almost every male character in the book was a negative stereotype. I get that cultural dramas must be authentic, but it’s not always the men and definitely not only the men who were at fault. It’s high time representation shows a genuine picture regardless of gender.

🌵 There’s one new character introduced pretty late in the book, whose main purpose I assume is to show us the next gen of Iranian women. It felt like a needless addition as the core story was about the Jahanis and it should have restricted itself to that rather than making a broader social comment.

🌵 It’s quite predictable. Everyone has a secret that devastating. Everyone behaves the way they are expected to once the secret is out. As the Irani and Indian cultures are so similar, I didn’t find much novelty in the proceedings. It was like a serious Bollywood family drama with Iranian characters instead of Indian.

🌵 Some of the content seems anachronous. I am not too sure of this as the exact year the story is set in isn’t mentioned. But I am fairly certain that ‘gaslighting’ wasn’t a term used in the 1990s.

The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at almost 12 hours, is narrated by Mozhan Marnò, who is also an Irani-American and hence a good fit for this narration. She was spot on with her accents and character voices. I only wished she performed emotions better. Like when characters are crying, the line is better read in a shaky voice so that we know what’s happening. It’s weird to hear the sentence being narrated normally and then hearing, ‘She sobbed.’

All in all, this is a character-oriented drama about a dysfunctional Irani-American family. It has good potential as a book club read because there’s so much to explore. It might not have blown me away due to my familiarity with the ethos of this culture, but it was still a satisfying read.

My thanks to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “In the Time of Our History”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.