In the book «Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran» the author tries to understand the current state of affairs in Iran by thorough analysis of the historical developments. Furthermore the characters of Iranian people are also described; the factors of influence on the policy of this country are considered both on micro and macro levels.
It is important to make clear how does the author combines the historical events and the up-to date situation. The historical background of this book is really significant one. Laura Secor tells about Iranian history starting with the time when Iran became the first theocracy of the modern world. In order to be specific the author pays large attention to all the participants of that revolution. She provides readers with interesting details. The main characters are journalists, dissidents, reformers and student activists. The author sets a question what was the main factors influencing the current situation. It may seem that she tries to find answer in context of social and cultural issues.
At the same time she fails to state clear position, all the points of vision are stated indirectly by the way of describing different, sometimes non-related events. Nevertheless a lot of important conclusions are made in the book. She draws parallels between revolution model of Iran and classic template of revolution referencing to the ideas of well-known historian Crane Brinton. It is hard to deny the fact that the first political leaders of Iran were moderates, but they were replaced by radicals who possessed the consolidated power to rule by the means of «terror and virtue».
Have all the important historical events been described by the author or not? Evidently all the developments, happened within the 37 years are impossible to describe. Nevertheless some really important facts are just skipped or paid little attention to by the narrator. Furthermore the book sometimes provides the reader with rather fuzzy sense of political context. The structure and narrative style are rather hopping and skipping around. The book consists of the brief overview rather than analysis of such an event as democratic Green movement and the significant crackdown unleashed by successor of Khomenei. The volume of this event was ended rather abruptly; there is little information on the presidency of Hassan Rouhani and no mention of his efforts to outreach to the West.
Which narrative style does the author use? Although the political line of the plot is rather not wholly completed, the hopes and personal beliefs of the characters of the book are presented by Laura Secor very well. The way of presentation is sometimes too emotional. One of the most haunting stories told by the author in these pages is the tragedy of two brothers Akbar and Manouchehr Mohammadi. The author reports they were tortured by the regime in the prison as they were leaders of secular students and were found guilty. Secor focuses on the details to represent the real side of that event to strengthen the impression of the reader.
Does the way of narrative is coherent enough to get the whole picture of the events described? It is true that Secor sometimes fails to situate such stories in context of larger and coherent narrative, but she is really experienced in this subject. According to her she tried to provide «the black box whose contents were all but unknowable».
It is also important to make clear what is the role of such a book among similar historical stories. According to some critics, she narrates unprecedented history defining it as the set of personal stories of different individuals caught up in the slipstream of their time. There were similar works previously written but none of them were such a successful combination of political background and tragedy of the Iranian generation. Although as was mentioned above there are some omits of the political developments, the book is rather unique due to emotional way of telling combined with directly stated facts and problems of the nearly 37 years of the Iranian history.
Do the stories narrated refer to real persons or there are rather imaginary lives? It should be mentioned that some stories are based on stories of some families, but some names are fictional due to the fact some people are still afraid to tell about that times directly. Too many memories of tortures and violence are still alive in minds of people.
Some critics argue about genre of this book. Due to quite emotional plot some scientists consider this book to be historical novel. Nevertheless the common point of view is to consider this book to be classic of political reporting. Furthermore it has some features of political analyzing works as some aspects of historical developments are considered in context of theoretical ground.
The main theme of Secor’s work is description of the way the clerical regime invoked severe opposition movements. Laura Secor emphasizes on how one generation of radical revolutionaries turned into the next generation of moderate reformists. The struggle of Iranian people to reform the Islamic Republic had great influence on the social and cultural development of the country. The author tried to revoke the truth of those events despite the fact that some of the developments are hidden even nowadays. But the argumentative line of the book is strong enough for new presentation of that tragedy due to the approach chosen by Laura Secor.
Conclusions
The book written by Laura Secor is really significant evidence of the importance to analyze current situation in context of historical background. The Iranian history is presented in great way. Despite some misleading the book is worth to read in order to understand current situation in Iran.
Works cited
Secor, Laura. Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran. Riverhead Books, 2015.
