Reading this book is like going into a hypnotic trance. The most interesting point about this book is that it is a true story. The book starts with a young American woman, Betty Mahmoody with her Iranian husband and daughter in a plane en route to Iran. As Betty reflects about her current circumstances and wonders about her uncertain future, I sensed the impending doom. So strong was that feeling that I felt like telling her to stop ! Just get off that plane. But since it is not possible to stop her, I was almost hypnotically sucked into the whirlpool of her unbelievably traumatic experience.
America : Betty
Betty has lived a normal American life when she meets Dr. Mahmoody, an Iranian doctor doing internship in osteopathic Medicine. After an amazingly romantic and idyllic courtship, she gets married to him. First there are those subtle changes in her husband, hard to pinpoint and impossible to define. And then those subtle changes transformed into bigger conflicts in their marriage. Betty, determined to resolve disputes and preserve her marriage for the sake of her four year old daughter, Mahtob, takes things in her stride. They somehow manage to keep their marriage intact by side stepping those issues and thus not letting their cultural differences come in between them. Till they go for a two week holiday to Iran.
Iran : Dr. Mahmoody
Dr. Mahmoody and his family alight in Iran to find a number of relatives waiting eagerly for them since he is visiting his homeland after a decade. It is here that he finds his roots and his sense of belonging. After years of feeling like a foreigner in a strange land, he feels at home at last. So contented is he that he does not want to go back to America. Instead he looks at the future with him and his family living in Iran forever. And to achieve this, he lies to his wife, deceives her, beats her up, locks her up in a house for days and deprives her of their daughter for weeks.
Iran : Betty
Betty Mahmoody is a victim of circumstances. She was pulled from her homeland and her roots as a modern, American career woman and forced into a life of a subjugated and oppressed Iranian wife. Her two week holiday to Iran turns into an unending saga of torture, humiliation and terror. At first she falls into despair but slowly, as time passes, she pulls through. She gathers her courage and skills and with grit and determination, plans to flee Iran. Though she knows that her task is uphill if not impossible, she fights against her circumstances to achieve her goal. She turns manipulative and aggressive by turns, confusing her enemies and cultivating her allies in Iran.
This book will engross you, shock you, disgust you and sometimes, amaze you. It is written in a unique style so that you will never find your attention wandering. It is autobiographical in tone but mercifully, it is not rich in self serving statements which autobiographies are usually so full of. Besides being an engrossing tale, at the end of this book, one feels that one knows the Iranian culture inside out.