Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books book club questions

1. 1.

   Nafisi argues that literature is a form of resistance. Does that claim hold outside the specific context of life under a theocratic government?

2. 2.

   Each section is named for a Western author. Is the book's dependence on the Western literary canon a strength or a limitation? What would the book look like organized around Iranian literature?

3. 3.

   How do Nafisi's students' responses to the books differ from each other, and what do those differences reveal about the variety of women's experience in Tehran?

4. 4.

   Humbert Humbert is a manipulative, self-serving narrator. Nafisi insists that reading him carefully is a form of moral practice. Do you agree?

5. 5.

   The veil appears throughout the book as a symbol, a legal imposition, and a daily reality. How does Nafisi's treatment of it compare to how Western observers typically discuss it?

6. 6.

   What does it mean that the most intimate conversations in the book happen in a private apartment over literature rather than in any institutional setting?

7. 7.

   Nafisi is from an educated, relatively privileged family. How does that background shape what she sees and what she misses in the society she describes?

8. 8.

   The book was published in English for a Western audience. Does that change how you read it? What is Nafisi asking Western readers to understand?

9. 9.

   Which of the four authors — Nabokov, Fitzgerald, James, Austen — seems most alive to you in Nafisi's reading? Why?

10. 10.

    Nafisi leaves Iran near the end. Is her departure a form of defeat or survival, and how does the book frame it?

11. 11.

    How does the experience of the book club differ from any reading group you have been part of, and what accounts for the difference?

12. 12.

    What would you put on the syllabus for a secret book club convened in conditions of political repression? How does that thought experiment reveal what you value in literature?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.