The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • More Books
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

The Lemon Grove

August 30, 2012

The Lemon Grove by Ali Hosseini
Published by Curbstone Books
Publication date: August 31st 2012
Genres: Cultural, Fiction
one-half-stars

The Lemon Grove takes place in Iran in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War. Behruz Pirzad returns from America to help his family after learning that his twin brother, Ruzbeh, was injured. He suffers from post-traumatic shock and often wanders off, leaving his wife and their mother alone in their hometown of Shiraz. Ruzbeh’s wife is their childhood friend Shireen and when Ruzbeh disappears for months, Behruz and Shireen begin an affair. They are caught one night when Shireen comes to the house to see Behruz. Islamist vigilantes take her away, while Behruz hides inside the locked home. He later escapes and returns to the abandoned family farm outside Shiraz, the Naranjestan, best known for its acres of lemon trees. He has no idea what has happened to either Ruzbeh or Shireen and in his despair and guilt he drinks pesticide. He is saved by an old family friend who happens upon him.

This is a slender novel both in page count and impact. If author Ali Hosseini’s goal is to mirror the weakness in Behruz in the novel itself, then he succeeds. Behruz’s passivity permeates each page. His fear and concern for his brother and his brother’s wife is real but he is more immersed in a world of dreams than in actually doing something to help them. He rediscovers his brother when wandering through the Naranjestan, and only then does he head back to Shiraz to try and find out what happened to Shireen. Once there, it is his friends who take care of him and give him not only information but a concrete plan of action. It is everyone around him who saves and gives action to Behruz. There is never any sense, aside from his suicide attempt, that he can act and it’s enervating.

Hosseini’s prose is as spare as the un-watered lemon trees in the grove and in that way beautifully conveys both the physicality and emotionality of Iran. One feels the deadening heat and the terror induced by the new regime. Unfortunately, there is simply not enough development of the characters to give the novel the depth it could have.

The America I found was a land of ideas and a can-do attitude…History seemed to lay lightly there, the scars of the past never dimming hope and optimism toward the future. Iran by contrast seemed an old nation not able to break with its past, a past that is a heavy load not just dragged behind but also controlling the future.

one-half-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • Same Genre
  • 1.5 Star Books
star
The Star Side of Bird Hill
expatriates
The Expatriates
place
A Place for Us: A Novel
cleanness
A Different Viewpoint: Cleanness
mother
Mothers’ Week: Mother Country
beautiful
Beautiful Animals: A Novel
infinite home
Infinite Home
water
The Water Knife
Small Great Things
Of Things Gone Astray
What I need to Read
What I Need When I Read
At the Water’s Edge
Opening Belle
red
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
september
September Reading Wrap-Up

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1980s, cultural, Iran

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in