Porochista Khakpour’s Sons and Other Flammable Objects
Finally! A novel about Iranians in America that sounds like it might speak to/for young diaspora Iranians. No offense to all the memoirists and other fiction writers who are putting out quality work… I just think it’s time to work through and then set aside the collective post-revolutionary loss, anger, and sadness and figure out where - and who - we are now.
So, I can’t wait to read this new book: it’s called Sons and Other Flammable Objects, and its author is Porochista Khakpour, who appears to be living my dream life: not only is she a novelist, but she’s smart and pretty, and cool yet approachable. Of course this also makes her fiercely intimidating. Just from reading this really cranky Washington Post review, I think I’m really going to like her book. Everything about it is giving me good vibes, and I’m reminded of how I felt the first time I saw the cover of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. An-ti-ci-pation!
If you have a minute, definitely check out Khakpour’s really funny (and true) story, The 20-Year-Old Virgin, published by nerve.com in 2005. You should probably not read it at work. And by probably not, I mean definitely not, unless your boss is cool with you reading about eyeball-licking when you’re on the clock.
by Sanam Goudarzi
[...] made no secret of my fandom of Iranian novelist Porochista Khakpour, whom I liked before I even read her book. She’s one of very few people so far that has managed to be Iranian and write a really great [...]
I am so excited to read this book - I just added it to a list of books I compiled for a friend who manages another location of the bookstore I work for; he is putting together a Persian interest section. We’ll have it in the store soon, and I am reading it as soon as papers allow. This sounds incredible.