In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs made me want to travel through the Middle East if only to see the Rose Garden of the Martyrs, the seven thousand graves, each with a photograph of the dead man buried below. That must be an impressive sight.
Through riding in a taxi and listening to the radio De Bellaigue offers up a snapshot of current events: Saddam's activities burning oil wells in Kuwait, Colin Powell's outward facing response to send more troops in aground campaign without telling the public what that really means. And speaking of taxis, what is it about taxi drivers? They are by turns an opportunity for confession and a source of information. There are little Easter egg surprises within In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs. The mini explanation of Rumi's birth into the world of poetry was one such treasure. The personal details of how De Bellaigue met and courted his wife, Bita. Speaking of De Bellaigue's wife and in-laws, I had to wonder how his personal life with them altered his journalistic approach to writing In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs. The language was far more introspective and dare I say romantic? ( )

My friend Mark suggested this book for our group back in 2006. Mark had travelled through the country during the days of the Shah, smoking hash and driving a VW Bus on his way to Afghanistan. He related how in certain hamlets, firewood was a dollar a night and the hash was free. It was around 2006 that the rumbles about preemptive strikes agsinst Iran first rumbled from Seymour Hersh and others. The book is masterful in detailing the contradictions of a progessive theocracy, the schizoid tensions of the educated classes and the waves of reforms and retractions between the mullahs and the minsiters. This is a fascinating glimpse. ( )

Perhaps the best book I have read about Iran is “In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran” (2004), by Christopher de Bellaigue, a British journalist and author, who, by his own admission, greatly benefits from his Iranian wife and in-laws. Mr de Bellaigue looks into the recent history of Iran, largely post-revolution, but with escapes further back into the 20th Century, to sketch the Pahlavi-dynasty background that provided the framework. And he does this superbly, through a mix of scholarly knowledge and deep-digging interviews with a broad range of people, many of whom keep on coming back in the book, with yet more details, more revelations.

One of the main subjects is the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, which is being analysed from the memories of veterans, from tracing down a famous commander who didn’t survive, and from Mr. de Bellaigue’s own extensive research. He puts into perspective the role of the various factions, inside as well as outside Iran, in such a way that you actually think you start to understand the issues that were at stake. His excursion into Orwell’s account of the Spanish civil war, and comparing and contrasting this with the Iran-Iraq war, is well chosen.

But the book also addresses other subjects, from daily Iranian life, to a brilliant chapter on the traditional sports club and the ‘thick-necks’, the gang-like heavyweights that used to dominate the bazaars, and the complex issue of their loyalty to one or another regime, starting with that of the Shah’s. All in all he paints a picture of what moves present day Iran, what is good (the revolution) and what is not so good (the aftermath of the revolution, the politics, the backroom-deals, the corruption, unaccounted-for murders), and what is important (somehow, religion is pervasive, in a way we Westerners don’t fully understand, appreciate it). And he does this with a pleasant writing style, helped by a healthy sense of humour, including some self-depreciation. Read this book, even if you don’t plan to travel to Iran; it helps you understand this country better, and it certainly helps you to read the news from Western news agencies in a different way. ( )

This is a fascinating book, although I'd say it's much more history and reporting than it is memoir. But that's not really a complaint. I guess there's enough of a memoir component to justify the subtitle. At any rate, de Belaigue is an English journalist who, at the time of the publication of this book in 2004, had been married to an Iranian woman and living in Tehran for several years (according to Wikipedia the couple now lives in London).

At any rate, de Bellaigue provides many first-hand accounts of what daily life was like in Tehran 10 years ago. (I don't imagine it's changed much, but what do I know?) But, as I mentioned, that's only one element of the book. Most importantly de Bellaigue provides an in-depth social and political history of Iran, and the Iranian Revolution that toppled the Shah and eventually brought the Ayatollah to supreme power, bringing us from those events right up to the time of the book's writing. Also, the causes and execution of the years-long, horrific war with Iraq are explained clearly and in-depth, as well. But rather than just providing straight history, de Bellaigue uses his journalistic skills to offer up portraits of and interviews with several Iranians, often people who took part in the Islamic Iranian Revolution, served the government in ways often unsavory, and are, for the most part, now in calmer retirement. Also, de Bellaigue provides plenty of historical context, going back as far as the early days of Islam in Iran, and explaining the Shia-Sunni split. There's a lot to take in, but the way de Bellaigue personalizes events, both through his own eyes and those of his interview subjects, works very, very well.

Basically, de Bellaigue describes the Revolution as a thugocracy, even from its earliest days. And then it got worse. de Bellaigue describes how, at least in his own view, the Revolution has subsequently imploded and betrayed even its own fundamentalist beliefs under the weight of hubris, greed and decadence. There has always been a give and take between reformers and hard-line Muslim fundamentalists, but the latter have always, in the end, employed ruthless means to retain ultimate control.

de Bellaigue's status as a Westerner who had lived in Iran for many years and who speaks Persian allowed him to present life in Tehran from the inside out, to show us the culture and the attitudes in fascinating ways and perspectives that neither a visiting Westerner nor even an Iranian could have managed. Given de Bellaigue rather dour and caustic attitude about the direction the Revolution had taken, it's not a surprise to me that he no longer lives in Iran. I have no idea whether the publishing of this book had anything to do with his leaving the country, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised. ( )

This memoir reads like a compilation of thorough newspaper articles or short stories, I never quite knew where the book was going next. It contains snapshots of Iranian life, histories of people involved in the Revolution and people who oppose its growing hypocrisy, and the reflections of a foreigner trying to understand and be understood. I found it very enjoyable to read, an absorbing glimpse into the lives of people who are motivated in ways foreign to my experience and a testament to the difficulty of turning a revolution into a stable government worthy of its citizenry. ( )