Overview

Said's Iranian-born father and American Jewish mother had one thing in common: their unshakable conviction that the workers' revolution was coming. Separated since their son was nine months old, they each pursued a dream of the perfect socialist society. Pinballing with his mother between makeshift Pittsburgh apartments, falling asleep at party meetings, longing for the luxuries he's taught to despise, Said waits for the revolution that never, ever arrives. Soon, his mother assures him, while his long-absent father quixotically runs as a socialist candidate for president in an Iran about to fall under the ayatollahs. Then comes the hostage crisis. The uproar that follows is the first time Said hears the word Iran in school. There he is suddenly forced to confront the combustible stew of his identity: as an American, an Iranian, a Jew, a socialist... and a middle-school kid who loves football and video games. Poised perfectly between tragedy and farce, here is a story by a brilliant young writer struggling to break away from the powerful mythologies of his upbringing and create a life--and a voice--of his own. Said Sayrafiezadeh's memoir is unforgettable.

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[Said Sayrafiezadeh is a name] that you may want to remember if this exacting and finely made first book is any indication [He] writes with extraordinary power and restraint [His] prose has some of [Isaac Bashevis] Singer s wistful comedy, and good deal of that writer s curiosity about the places where desire, self-sacrifice and societal obligation intersect and collide. New York Times, on the English-language edition

[Sa d Sayrafiezadeh is a name] that you may want to remember...if this exacting and finely made first book is any indication...[He] writes with extraordinary power and restraint...[His] prose has some of [Isaac Bashevis] Singer's wistful comedy, and good deal of that writer's curiosity about the places where desire, self-sacrifice and societal obligation intersect and collide. --New York Times, on the English-language edition

[Said Sayrafiezadeh is a name] that you may want to remember if this exacting and finely made first book is any indication [He] writes with extraordinary power and restraint [His] prose has some of [Isaac Bashevis] Singer s wistful comedy, and good deal of that writer s curiosity about the places where desire, self-sacrifice and societal obligation intersect and collide. <i>New York Times, </i>on the English-language edition

Author Information

Said Sayrafiezadeh is the son of an Iranian father and American Jewish mother, raised in Pittsburgh surrounded by the crazy atmosphere of a long overdue revolution. He has published articles and reports in Grants, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Open City, The New York Times Book Review, and GQ.

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