Eid Mubarak!

Eid Mubarak, Happy New Year!
On the first day of spring, Iranians around the world celebrate the Norouz festival, their new year. Last year, my Norouz post focused on my experience in Iran, where I lived as a baby, in the late 1970's; this country has remained very dear to my heart ever since.
This year however I'd like to focus on the future. As President Obama just reached out to Iran via a video message, I am elated to think today may be the dawn of a new era...

More on Iran...
Listen to a hilarious interview of the American-Iranian comedian Maz Jobrani, on NPR...
Watch Majid Majidi's new film, The Song of Sparrows, a lyrical comedy focusing on a lively and moving family, that I just loved (to be released in New York April 3, in Los Angeles April 10)(trailer here)...
Read Reza Aslan's How To Win A Cosmic War, out April 21 - I'll talk about it on this blog again soon...

Christmas Memories

Here are pictures of the Christmas I spent, as a little girl, in Tehran, Iran, in December 1978 - granted, a country on the verge of an Islamic and anti-American revolution was an odd place to spend Christmas... Since, I celebrated Christmas in many other more or less unlikely places, where I was visiting relatives (Uruguay, Chicago, the French Alps, Florida, Singapore, Los Cabos), visiting friends (Perth, Hong-Kong, Cairo, Seoul, New Delhi) or living (Paris, Beijing, Baghdad, Nairobi, and this year, Los Angeles). No matter where my family was, my sister and I were always showered with presents and love.

I don't know where I'll be in a year, but my dearest wish is to spend next Christmas with my parents and my sister. In the meantime, my mum sent me some typical French Christmas treats, including those supremely delicious marrons glacés, or candied chestnuts.

Reading In Los Angeles

Here are the books I read while in Los Angeles...
... I loved Deanne Stillman's Mustang, a gripping history of wild horses in America, with some very sad insights into those gorgeous creatures' situation today...
... thank you to blogger and avid reader Hila, who recommended I read Amos Oz (Fima reminded me of some passages by Philip Roth and JM Coetzee), as well as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a superbly written classic that moved me deeply...
... I have already mentioned great dancer Carlos Acosta's emotional No Way Home - get it, read it, enjoy it!...
... Iran has been dear to my heart since I lived there as a little girl, so I was excited to delve into The Septembers of Shiraz, by Dalia Sofer, a worthwhile but tough novel that leads you straight into the prisons of Tehran...
... finally, I tore through the witty and smart letters of Nancy Mitford; Mitford should be given a lot more credit as a top-notch writer, and I try to do her justice in an Anthology of British Literature, to be published in France soon, in which I wrote the chapter about her - as far as I know, it will be the first time she will be included in such an anthology. Nancy rules, and that will be my last word today.

Happy Persian New Year!

Eid Mubarak!
March 21 is the first day of spring, and it's also the Persian New Year, when Iranians around the world celebrate with mouthwatering feasts (rice with fresh herbs is a favorite) and presents of live goldfish (yes, really!).
This Persian holiday means a lot to me because as I mentioned in a recent post, when I was a little girl I used to live in Tehran (top picture - I am 18 months and in my mum's arms), where I developed a regrettable taste for caviar - not one I can indulge often. It was 1978-1979, the time of the Islamic revolution and we had to flee before my family could explore the many artistic, architectural and natural treasures of this country.

Ever since, I have felt an intense longing for Iran and have rejoiced in the friendship of Persian friends from Paris to LA. Many also fled their country in 1979 and this gives us an instant connexion, even if what they lost is incomparably more considerable than what we left behind. I love their warmth, their extraordinary sense of hospitality and exquisite, if sometimes over the top politeness, their wonderful food and their pride in a culture that boasts breathtaking masterpieces in poetry, visual arts, architecture,film and music; on the internet, I often listen to hypnotic traditional Iranian rhythms on RadioDarvish.com.
If anyone has Persian books to recommend, don't hesitate to share!

Today I'd like to thank all my Iranian friends for their precious generosity. And to celebrate the Persian new year, here's a poem by Omar Khayyam, the 11th century astronomer, mathematician and bard:

This Universal wheel, this merry-go-round
In our imagination we have found
The sun a flame, in the Cosmic lantern bound
We are mere ghosts, revolving, the flame surround

A new chair

This is my very first furniture post!
My new chair is made of wood, like the floors in my apartment. I lovingly cleaned it up yesterday and my room is still fragrant with the warm, spicy smell of wax...

I spent my childhood all over the world, in rentals where my family didn't own the furniture and where we may have to leave everything behind. We were living in Iran in 1979, in the midst of a violent revolution, when a phone call came, urging us to head for the airport with no luggage; so we fled this dear, beautiful country. Years later in Iraq, my parents kept a pouch with our passports and some cash at hand at all times because it was a possibility that again, we may have to depart at once, taking nothing with us.

These experiences, and obsessive readings about the occupation of Paris during WW2, when Parisians abandoned everything to the Germans, have made me very wary of "stuff"; always, at the back of my mind, is the notion one may lose everything, so I keep my possessions minimal.
(Curious about the occupation of Paris in the 1940's? Irène Nimérovsky's extraordinary, if unfinished, novel Suite Française, whose manuscript was discovered decades after the author died in Auschwitz, is a must-read)

Still, I love having friends over and they need to sit somewhere, don't they?