Straight From the Heart: Apple Box Hosts Iranian-American Stories

A newly published anthology of short stories called Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian-American Writers will be the subject of a reading event in Petaluma's popular Apple Box cafe on April 19 from 6:30-8:30 PM.

This is an opportunity for anyone who loves literature to relax with a glass of wine or tea as authors read excerpts from their imaginative and finely-crafted stories.

As a cultural anthropologist who has taught several courses on Iran (at Sonoma State and USF), I can attest that the stories in this volume are authoritative; masterfully written, and frequently, mesmerizing. Virtually all of the authors have been recipients of prestigious literary prizes, including New York Times best selling author Jasmine Darznik whose contribution, "Unveiled", is an excerpt from her best selling novel The Good Daughter.

Excerpts from 4 of the 27 stories in this collection will be read at the Apple Box event, but many of the 23 others will also enchant, intrigue or amuse anyone with an interest in the broad diversity of the Iranian-American experience. In her story "Murder in Holmby Hills" for example, Gina Nahai's characterization of the Iranian penchant for indirectness brings a smile: The Persian expression "If I may place a flower in between your words," is a gentle counterpart to the American "Shut up and let me talk for a change". Or the American sentiment expressed in "The son of a bitch did the world a favor when he got himself killed," has the edge taken off in Persian: "Even in Death, he continued to serve mankind."

More somber notes follow the stories dealing with repression inside Iran. Readers unfamiliar with the plight of the Baha'is--the most persecuted religious group in Iran--will be riveted by Omid Fallahazad's story "Sabzeh" which tells of a Baha'i family's search for their father's grave in a government assigned cemetery on the barren outskirts of a city. They find the area bulldozed over and reduced to a pile of rubble, with no sign of their father's grave or of the countless other Baha'is buried there.

In "Something to Pray For", co-editor Persis Karim locates her story closer to home. Her protagonist "Moshen" is picked up by the INS in the wake of 9/11, and is kept in a holding cell like a criminal. This encounter ignites Moshen's painful memory of his son who, as a young idealist, acted on his belief that he was fighting for freedom from the late Shah's rule. His arrest and death during the '79 revolution clouds Moshen's emotions during his questioning.

Not all of the stories in Tremors are about repression, however. Ari Siletz's "The Ascension" is playful and mischievous tale of a jealous mother Jinn (a magical creature in Muslim folklore) who has taken a beautiful human newborn baby and swapped him with her own sickly child. Growing up among humans, the young Jinn leads the narrator on a revelatory journey that offers up a euphoric glimpse of the true vastness of the universe.

Co-editor Anita Amirrezvani's "A New Assignment" plays with a Scheherazade theme in a beguiling story of how a man in the employ of a princess had become a eunuch. Amirrezvani, whose novels have been translated in 25 languages, teases the reader's imagination as she engages issues of gender identity.

In all, one senses an acute yearning in these writers' stories; in each one, the reader is beckoned to reflect on the lives of anyone who has had to flee their countries in the aftermath of war and revolution. What is lost in the process--the comfort of their native tongues, the predictability of their cultural norms, among many other things--can never be recaptured. The lyrics of a song played on a record in Nahid Rachlin's "The Calling" is suggestive: "Oh my love, you're like a wild flower on the hills, out of my reach, out of my reach".