The Saffron Kitchen--#67 finished

An interesting book, certainly not a page turner but one that makes you think and feel for the characters inside. The mother in the story, Maryam, had wanted a life outside of being married in Iran to a village type life. She wished for instead to study and become a nurse. She was also best friends with and maybe loved in a way Ali. Well circumstances forced her to spend the night with Ali at age 16, where once this became known in the closed society, it was a family scandal. Her father disowned her and forced her to move to Tehran where she eventually ended up in England. Ali was beaten to near death and was allowed to live in the primative village, their hometown.

The story is about how late in life Maryam's feelings that she lived with all her life about what her life would have been and with Ali are forced out and she decides to travel to Iran. She leaves behind her daughter, Sara, a nephew from one of Maryam's sisters that recently died and her husband. I think the book did a very good job at trying to get inside the heads and feelings of those left behind in a way that allowed the reader an understanding but didn't spell everything out either. It let the reader kind of understand the very complex feelings each person was having and the really not knowing Maryam as they thought they did as well.

Well Sara travels to Iran and stays with Maryam and meets Ali and does come to a kind of understanding of her mother. While there is still a part of her that seems to wish for a return to a happy family reconciliation with her mom & dad, she realizes that is not going to happen. Her mom will stay in Iran to live out her days while Sara returns to her life and to start her family. Like I said a good book that really allows the reader to feel some of the emotions and uncertainty the characters are experiencing. Not a great book and parts were tough to keep me interested to keep going but overall a good book.

It is not a WL book on PBS now, it was a month or so ago but a couple other copies are now on the system. Oh well, I expect it will move in the coming months, patience is certainly needed for a PBS account.