A World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans - Hardcover

Persis M. Karim; Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami

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9780807614433: A World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807614432 ISBN 13: 9780807614433

Publisher: George Braziller Inc., 1999

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This collection is the first published anthology of writings by Iranian immigrants and first generation Iranian Americans.

This collection is the first published anthology of writings by Iranian immigrants and first generation Iranian Americans. Wide ranging and deeply personal, these pieces explore the Iranian community's continuing struggle to understand what it means to be Iranian in America. The selections come together to present a rich, humanizing portrait of a growing community Americans tend to view negatively. Many are intimate reflections on the pain of being alienated from the language, history, and geography of one's childhood. Others grapple with the complexities of cultural and personal identity. Iranian Americans, like any other immigrant community, must face the ongoing negotiation between past and present, their native home and their adopted home. A World Between gives voice to their unique and moving stories.

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About the Author:

Persis M. Karim was born in the United States to an Iranian father and a French mother. She received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami has lived in the United States since 1984. He is an assistant professor of Persian and Persian literature at New York University.

From Publishers Weekly:

The 1979 Iranian revolution catalyzed the migration of more than one million Iranians to the U.S. The writings of the first generation of immigrants reveal their common "sense of alienation and 'in-betweenness,' " according to editor Khorrami. The result is that an impression of bleaknessAeven bitternessAand mourning pervades this collection of original poems, short stories and transcripts of videotaped interviews with Iranian-American students conducted at UC-Berkeley. Zara Houshmand's poem "I Pass" exposes the universal dilemma of the outsider: "I hold the cards close to my chest;/ I bluff./ You call./ I pass." Likewise, Laleh Khalili's poem "Defeated" recounts how many immigrants "slowly unlearned [their] ancestry" and "lost" themselves. Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet's story "Martyrdom Street" describes a woman coming back to consciousness after an Iraqi bombing of an Iranian post office, next to "a man's dismembered hand, beautiful with long artistic fingers, capable of painting masterpieces or composing epics." This woman "survives," but loses the use of her own left hand and watches helplessly as her marriage becomes a casualty of war. Though too bleak to be read in one sitting, these stories and poems are eloquent testimony to the eminent desirability of peace.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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