Ignorance by Milan Kundera speaks exactly of how I feel about my homeland. This greatly written story is about immigrants who have escaped Prague during communism. Some of these immigrants return after 20 years.
I was only away four years, but I still felt a great connection with this book.
Even in Belgium there are many Iranians who have not returned in many years. To me four years was very long and I couldn’t imagine being away any longer. Now I see the ones who have not returned in 16 or 17 years and I think, what was I complaining about?!
You can buy Ignorance from Amazon.com.
hairofthedawg July 21, 2003 @ 8:12 pm
Thanks for the tip on the book. Is he speaking of people who return to stay or those that just visit and go back to the place they’ve made into a home. Some interesting books on travel have also been written by Paul Theroux. He’s pretty opinionated but manages to describe a place pretty well. He writes more about the people than scenery but manages to get both points across. Happy Isles of Oceania is among my favorites and makes me wish I had the guts to undertake such an adventure.
Do you think you could live in Iran again someday? Would it be a struggle for you to do so? I guess what I’m getting at is whether you’ll be willing to take part in the fight to achieve a true democracy or whether you’ll be one of those that return after the fact to enjoy the fruits of others’ labors?
cheers,
Dick