Read Dangerously. The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi

There is a sentence in Read Dangerously. The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by best-seller author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi: books don´t save us from death, but help us live and live with hope. Hope is here the keyword: without hope it´s hard to survive in the real world, especially when this real world is a hateful one. Hateful against women, the freedom, the right to live itself.

Nafisi, whose book I had access to in the audiobook format, read by the author, was written during the pandemic, and Trump administration. Nafisi, in exile in the US, comes from a prestigious family in Iran. She is the niece of Saeed Nafisi and her father, Ahmad Nafisi, to whom the chapters are addressed to in the form of letters, was the mayor of Tehran between 1961 and 1963.

The times we are living, in Iran, in the world, are forcing a reevaluation of the strength of imaginary, of the power of books. Books do not betray and they can be the home you don´t have to leave. You can confess to them without the fear of being betrayed and through books one can build a house for your soul. 

Nafisi is having a real or imaginary dialogue with writers from all over the world that either approached such topics or who were turned into victims of violent minds because of their writings. One can ´read dangerously´ David Grossman - whom she meet and whose book To the End of the Land she mentioned extensively - Salman Rushdie, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood. They are writers that at different times and in different contexts defended the right of the writer to exist, as part of the right of the reader him- or herself to have access to knowledge. 

Through all her letters, it is her love for her culture and country that remains. It is a longing for the world that would cease to hide, like women bodies, in order to exist. Because, as she said, ´readers are born free´ and once one gets the taste of reading, will always remain free.

The bibliography mentioned in the book can serve as an inspiration to anyone looking to explore more this kind of literature, made to empower the reader, even more than the usual literature do. Read Dangerously that every passionate reader should include in his or her bibliography. It is less about the dangers, but about the powers of words, that will always be stronger than power. After all, after centuries, dictators of all colours and orientations will be forgotten. Brave authors, not. There is a bet of history that power tugs are fully ignorant of and therefore, born to be losers.

Rating: 5 stars