{"id":1171,"date":"2019-05-16T17:58:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T23:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=1171"},"modified":"2019-05-16T17:58:48","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T23:58:48","slug":"on-loving-by-lili-naghdi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=1171","title":{"rendered":"On Loving by Lili Naghdi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1172\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?attachment_id=1172\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/on-loving.jpg?fit=1562%2C2500&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1562,2500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"on loving\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/on-loving.jpg?fit=640%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-1172\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/on-loving.jpg?resize=251%2C402&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"on loving.jpg\" width=\"251\" height=\"402\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Naghdi&#8217;s razor-sharp account of the complex inner lives of her protagonists and her poetic rendering of the rich Persian literature make for an intense read\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThat I can be with you, you, all of you,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And if life repeated a thousand times,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Still you, you, and again, you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lili Naghdi\u2019s debut novel is rich, emotionally urgent portrayal of a woman\u2019s life and the two love stories that mark it along with the exploration of the rich Persian Literature. After completing her surgery residency, the narrator Dr. Rose Hemmings decides to travel to Iran to learn about her birth parents. Secretly in love with Dean, a damaged man who is struggling with chronic depression and unable to reciprocate her feelings, Rose meets handsome Siyavash, his cousin, in Iran and their lives become intertwined. In a sure, accomplished prose, Naghdi parse the delicate feelings of being in love and beautifully describes the way love makes a person helpless. But more than that, Naghdi\u2019s special gift to readers is her depiction of Rose\u2019s life, especially the two love stories that mark it. Her description of the feverish period of Rose\u2019s early life in New York and Paris and the restlessness, the trepidation, the hopelessness that accompany it, is both tender and sensual. The intrigue, the confusion, and the sweeping passion that eventually becomes a part of Rose\u2019s stay in Iran are depicted beautifully. The years of Rose\u2019s blissful, intense marriage are as impressive as the early heartbreaking years of her hopeless love. With an eye for emotional and moral ambiguities, Naghdi successfully creates winning characters: Siyavash, the ultimate lover\u2014dashing, charming, and incredibly sexy with a real hero\u2019s demeanor, is endearing. He has more than charm and dash\u2014he is as selfless as one can be; Dean is more an antihero than a hero (for the most part at least), but equally charming; Rose is impressive. Naghdi handles the book\u2019s pacing and tone with accomplished skill. However, the intensity of Dean\u2019s passion (in the last part) is an echo of Siyavash\u2019s passion and seems a bit over the top considering the two men are entirely different people. But that\u2019s a minor flaw. The satisfying denouement is utterly beautiful and will make Rose\u2019s love story stay in the reader\u2019s heart for long. The inclusion of the English translations of the great ancient and modern Persian poetry will delight morally serious literature lovers. Naghdi has created a fascinating love story that seems both traditional and contemporary at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>On Loving by Lili Naghdi<\/h2>\n<h3>Tellwell Talent<\/h3>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Loving-Lili-Naghdi\/dp\/1999497007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buy now<\/a><\/h4>\n<h4>PUB DATE February 15, 2019<\/h4>\n<h4>ISBN 9781999497002<\/h4>\n<h4>PRICE $18.80 (USD)<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Naghdi&#8217;s razor-sharp account of the complex inner lives of her protagonists and her poetic rendering of the rich Persian literature make for an intense read\u2026 &nbsp; \u201cThat I can be with you, you, all of you, And if life repeated a thousand times, Still you, you, and again, you.\u201d &nbsp; Lili Naghdi\u2019s debut novel is rich, emotionally urgent portrayal of a woman\u2019s life and the two love stories that mark it along with the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[91,460,11394632,3328,178,1747,1320398,1008073,856121,309],"class_list":["post-1171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-blogging","tag-blogs","tag-book-review-site","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-fiction","tag-fiction-book-reviews","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-iT","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1173,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions\/1173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}