Top Goodreads Reviews

Ann Bogle rated it was amazing

I got wrapped up in reading Afarin Majidi's Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror and felt I was inside an anatomy of how things take place…That the timeline is straight counterbalances the confusion, even madness, of the events of the tale. The book does an admirable job of indicating crazy thinking as a sign of unraveling trauma. It is good that the author eventually gets care for the condition that results from harms in her life, including a rape that at first seems too mysterious for her to believe and that becomes a pinnacle event once it is understood. The writing about that rape alone is a feat in writing. There is a fixation on a teacher that becomes the subject of a different memoir, one that James Lasdun wrote about Majidi [as Nasreen]…[Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror] tackles many subjects including school, work, housing, loss of one's first country (Iran), war, and misogyny that is influenced by origins and religion, that the author identifies as racism. I have recommended the memoir to several readers as a guide in understanding and describing maltreatment and life. I read this quotation by James Baldwin today, and it reminds me of Majidi's achievement: "The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat." (less)

Eve Stein rated it it was amazing

A deeply compelling read of one woman's story or survival in a world where the odds are against her. Eloquently written and bravely delves into complex issues that are too often tiptoed around such as mental illness, misogyny, Rape, Identity politics, War, Trauma and Islamophobia. A riveting read that I devoured and that changed and challenged me. Could seem a heartbreaking litany of misfortunes were it not for the metamorphic alchemy of her artistry.

Rebecca rated it liked it

The author, knowing I’m a big fan of James Lasdun’s memoir Give Me Everything You Have, offered me a copy of her own recent memoir, which is a sort of rebuttal of Lasdun’s account of being [allegedly] stalked... I was happy to take a look so that I could compare the two books and feel like I’d heard both sides of the story.

Ironically, although I read this chiefly for the Lasdun connection, I most enjoyed the early chapters before he first makes a proper appearance. The short prologue is an excellent route into the story. Set in 2012, it depicts Majidi as being regretful about her extreme actions towards Lasdun. It’s just six months since the death of her half-sister Nasrin (Afarin is referred to by the alias “Nasreen” in Lasdun’s memoir), and Afarin is in a shaky mental state. “She’s very sick. She needs help,” a cop who visits her apartment concludes.

From here we jump back to 1979, a time of unrest in Iran. The author’s uncle, Madgid, was a cabinet member for the Shah but was later arrested. Each day Majidi went to the airport with her non-practicing Muslim family to try to escape. They finally got the last plane out to America, where an aunt had arranged visas and a rental home in New Jersey. Majidi had three sisters (the only characters given aliases here) and a violent, traditional brother. Her parents had little to no English, and her mother – Maman Shirin, the best character in the book – drank. Collectively, her sisters had a lot of issues, including eating disorders, delinquency and a restraining order. A troubled home life manifested itself in Majidi’s panic attacks, drug use and promiscuity. Ultimately she got a scholarship to Barnard and worked for various New York City publishers and magazines while writing a novel about the Islamic Revolution.

James Lasdun was Majidi’s advisor during her creative writing degree at The New School starting in 2003. Her chief grievances are that he didn’t help her as much as he could have…and that he led her on professionally and sexually…

Sometimes the author can get outside her own head enough to recognize how delusional she was being (“I was growing more delirious each day”), but other times she comes up with a bizarre story and sticks to it, such as that Lasdun and the editor he later put her in touch with tried to steal the plot of her novel and that he continually used her for material. While it’s distressing that she feels her accusation that she was drugged by Rolling Stone colleagues wasn’t taken seriously (and believes tacit racism is involved in how she’s treated), it does sound like there was insufficient evidence… The thing I perhaps find most confusing is that Writing and Madness is being presented as a “response to” a book Majidi hasn’t actually read it…

*from author: I have not and will not read an ethically immoral book that exploits my psychotic nervous breakdown after sexual aassault.