Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
In August 1984, Michigan housewife Betty Mahmoody accompanied her husband to his native Iran for a two-week vacation. To her horror, she found herself and her four-year-old daughter, Mahtob, virtual prisoners of a man rededicated to his Shiite Moslem faith, in a land where women are near-slaves and Americans are despised. Their only hope for escape lay in a dangerous underground that would not take her child...
Now the true story of this courageous woman and her breathtaking odyssey bursts upon the screen in the Pathe Entertainment production starring Academy Award-winner Sally Field!
A Literary Guild Alternate Selection.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
BIG SMILE
Customer Rating:
SAW THE MOVIE 10 TIME AND MORE ALWAYS CRYING EACH TIME I WATCH IT. SO I SHOULD HAVE THE BOOK AS A REMINDER.
Based on a real lie
Customer Rating:
A very boring story about a seemingly very vengeful woman. We all make mistakes in life, and try to learn from it. But Betty Mahmoody is making money out of it but making up a story in which potrayes herself as the victim. I watched this woman complaining on the Dr. Phil show recently, still sobbing and feeling sorry for herself and at the same time promoting her book and trying to squeeze the last couple of bucks out of her story. Thanks to the Finish documentary `Without my daughter' which shows us what really happened we now know that this book is just one big lie. Maybe they don't show you these documentaries in the US, I'm sure your government would like you to believe that all women are suppressed in countries like Iran. Do not buy this book, don't buy the DVD. Dishonesty should not be rewarded.
Herman, Europe
Unpleasant experience
Customer Rating:
There is no doubt in my mind that the experience Mrs. Mahmoody has had, if one can describe that as an ''experience'' has been rather an unpleasant one. As others have pointed it it is also surprising that she has opted to travel to Iran in one of its most shacky moments, during the middle of the war between Iraq-Iran. Also, it seems that Mrs. Mahmoody was not completely out of guard to this, as she herself describes in the book that the trip was made at a moment before which there had been many struggles between her and Mr. Mahmoody, hence it seems their relation was not completely right even before the trip, well... false promises and hopes she accepts to travel to Iran to please her husband.
The experiences she describes must have been very difficult, she is beaten, treated like nothing, nobody helps her or listens to her, as it seems every body is scared and tries to stay away. I completely must disagree with the way she pictures Iran and the society, about the hygiene issue particularly how she describes the food and the people in the family as being completely unclean, yes it's possible that she was not so lucky and the people she had to live with were not clean, but this can not be fitted to the society entirely, neither can it be fitted to any other society, it just seems these particular people seemed rather uncareful in this matter, though when one reads the book with no previous Eastern experience one might think that ''this is how life is over there'' I could not disagree more.
Also, she describes how ''horrible'' the life is in Iran, due to its restrictions and so on. I think this is rather completely another story, and do not take for granted what she says, I have met Iranian people and have had Iranian friends and I think it's better to read further on this matter. The book is nice in my opinion, I admire the courage of Mrs. Mahmoody in her struggle to protect her child, nevertheless I do believe that the descriptions of many things in this book have been emotionally affected by her terrible experience, which may be in a way understandable, had things gone right for her and her husband perhaps she would not have described life as being ''so terrible'' in Iran, I am not sure but a pleasant read in any case.
Edge-of-your-seat...
Customer Rating:
When I was in high school, a friend of mine recommended "Not Without My Daughter." Twenty years later, I finally got around to reading it. I wish that friend were still in my life to discuss the book with. I recall her saying she stayed up all night, unable to put the book down, and I had much the same reaction. It is a riveting tale of domestic abuse and a harrowing escape, occuring in Tehran in 1984. Yes, there were moments that made me squirm because Betty Mahmoody seemed like a spoiled American making sweeping generalizations about a culture she had little time to experience, but the story overall is a compelling one.
I recommend the book highly, with reservations. I also read "Persepolis" recently and that provided a much needed counterpoint to Mahmoody's biases. It is essential to consider more than one person's experiences. Not everyone in Iran is like the family she married into. That said, this is a compelling story and one worth knowing about.
uberAmericana meets the Exotic East
Customer Rating:
Take all the figures in this painting(The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827 Fine Art Stretched Canvas Poster Print by Eugene Delacroix, 22x17) and dress them up as modern Iranians.
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