The lifelong friends of “The Girls from Ames,’’ Iowa, including Jane Nash, second from right, who now lives in Mansfield.
(Teness Herman)
Shelf Life
A bullet in darkness
The lifelong friends of “The Girls from Ames,’’ Iowa, including Jane Nash, second from right, who now lives in Mansfield.
(Teness Herman)
Shahriar Mandanipour, a visiting scholar at Harvard, opens a window on his native, troubled Iran with a new novel about love and censorship.
In “Censoring an Iranian Love Story’’ (Knopf), a narrator named Shahriar - the author’s fictional alter ego - is writing a love story set in that country. It is hard work. The novel includes the crossed-out sentences that Shahriar knows will not pass muster with the censors.
Mandanipour, who was prohibited from publishing fiction in Iran in the 1990s, arrived in the United States in 2006 for a one-year appointment at Brown University. He spoke openly about censorship there, making a return to his homeland impossible.
In an interview translated by Sara Khalili who translated “Censoring’’ from Farsi, Mandanipour, 52, said it is difficult to adjust to the freedom and lack of danger he now finds as a writer. “The important point is that writing in Iran and being a writer in Iran is very different from writing in the West and being a writer in the West,’’ he said. “In Iran when you put the final period at the end of the last sentence of a good story, you feel as though you have shot a bullet into the heart of darkness.’’
Fantasy festivities
Readercon, the 20th annual gathering for fans of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, offers a jam-packed four-day schedule of serious discussions and light-hearted contests. The opening sessions on Thursday evening at the Burlington Marriott are free. Novelists Elizabeth Hand and Greer Gilman are the guests of honor. Other speakers include From Ames to Mansfield
Jane Nash is still close to nine friends from her childhood in Ames, Iowa. Now in their mid-40s, the women are scattered across the country, with only one still in Ames. Nash, a psychology professor at Stonehill College, lives in Mansfield.The story of the friendships spanning 40 years is told in “The Girls from Ames’’ (Gotham) by Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and coauthor with Randy Pausch of “The Last Lecture.’’ The women celebrate each other’s achievements, but it’s the tragedies that have tightened the bonds. One friend died in her early 20s. Another lost a daughter to leukemia. Two have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
E-mail has helped the women stay in touch between reunions. “That ‘Reply All’ has been a godsend,’’ Nash said. She will appear with Zaslow at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Borders in Mansfield. She expects one or two of her friends from Ames will show up as well.
Coming out
Pick of the week
Linda Cysz of the Bookloft in Great Barrington recommends “Our Life in Gardens’’ by Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd (Farrar, Straus and Giroux): “Joe and Wayne’s romps through the muck deserve a place in every collection of garden books. With how-to tips and the couple’s adventures in their Vermont garden as well as other horticultural escapades rendered with a sense of humor and humanity, this book is sure to inspire.’’Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com. 
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