The House On Sun Street - Mojgan Ghazirad - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Mojgan Ghazirad

GENRE: Iranian Historical Fiction

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A historical autofiction based on a young girl’s recollections of what happened in Iran during and after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Not as traumatic as I had expected, which is both good and bad. Impactful in its writing. Disliked the final quarter or so, but the rest was great.

Story Synopsis:

In 1978, six-year-old Moji and her younger sister love nothing more than to visit her grandparents’ house on Sun Street and listen to their grandfather narrating stories from ‘One Thousand and One Nights’. They do not yet know that the seeds of revolution have already begun to spring up, and very soon, the Shah (the monarch of Iran) will leave his country, changing all their lives.

Through Moji’s eyes, we get to see the days during and after the 1979 revolution, with a glimpse of their brief stint in the US where Moji’s dad had been studying during the uprising.

The story comes to us from Moji’s first person perspective, and covers her life from age six to thirteen.

As an OwnVoices work, the story offers a genuine glimpse of Iranian history, culture, and thinking. We get to see life in Iran before the revolution as well, where women were free to wear what they want, pursue education, and have an individuality outside of the men in their lives. The changes after the revolution impacted women the most, as is always the case in a restrictive regime. The contrast between before and after is stark. Many historical events come up in the course of the story, though only in the background: the US hostage crisis, the Ayatollah Khomeini regime, and the invasion by Iraq in the early 1980s. There is also a small track about racism in the US. There is a lot of Iranian food mentioned in the story, all of which sound mouth-watering.

As the main characters come in two distinct categories: Shah sympathizers and Islamic loyalists (including some extremists), we see the tussle between their ideologies and the extent of political brainwashing on both sides. It is a clear (and scary) representation of what happens when politics mixes with religion, or perhaps I should say: when religion interferes with politics. At the same time, I really appreciate how the writing doesn’t criticise the faith itself but the extremists who misinterpret it out of their own narrowmindedness.

It is interesting to see such a drastic change of lifestyle through the eyes of a young girl, who comes of age during the revolution. As she is just six at the start of the book and it ends with her aged thirteen, we get to see a somewhat simplified version of the new theocracy, but it is still striking enough to make the historical picture clear. I expected to be more emotionally wrought after reading this book, but the choice of narrator kept my emotions firmly in control.

As Moji’s narration is in first person, the general tone of the story feels light, even though it is disturbing to read about some horrifying events from a child’s point of view. At times though, the vocabulary in the dialogues didn’t match Moji’s age; it was too highbrow. I wish the dialogues were more consistent in this sense. (I am reminded here of another compelling child narrator: Scout from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Moji is not at the same level, but she is still impactful, at least for the first three-quarters of the book.)

Storytelling has a strong role to play in the story, whether it is the grandfather’s habit of entertaining his granddaughter with stories, or Moji’s passion for books and her tendency to take inspiration from stories, and later, even penning a story. I loved the use of the Arabian book of ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ in the plot. Every chapter begins with a quote from a different story of this classic, with most titles being new to me.

The only *major* flaw for me was the final section, which focussed on Moji’s growing awareness of her sexuality, making the book suddenly seem like a YA novel. Even if the events herein were based on actual incidents – as it is a semi-autobiographical novel, we cannot be sure which parts are fictionalised – it still does not fit into the core plot as the events seem to go off on a tangent. The relationship between the two characters involved and Moji’s age further added to my discomfort and dissatisfaction.

The epilogue was also somewhat disappointing as it took a very big jump - going from Moji aged 13 to contemporary adult-married-parent Moji, with nary an explanation of what happened in the interim. I didn’t like it at all as it created queries instead of providing closure.

Until this final section, I was still confused whether to rate the book 4 or 4.25 stars. But the denouement made my decision easy.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 9 hrs 28 min, is narrated by Nikki Massoud. She handles the narration well. I’d definitely recommend the audio version even to newbie listeners as the timeline is linear and the cast, minimal.

All in all, this is a good book for most of the way. In fact, the final section also will be liked by many, but to me, it really killed the spirit of the main storyline. My rating would have been higher had the final scenes been edited or cut off.

Recommended to those interested in reading an OwnVoices Iranian historical work that has its roots firmly in reality.

My thanks to Blair for the DRC and Dreamscape Media for the ALC of “The House on Sun Street”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.