Dardedel: Rumi, Hafez & Love in New York

by Manoucher Parvin

Professor Pirooz, a Iranian-American who is despairing of his life and the state of today’s world, flies from New York to Phoenix, wanders into the desert at night, and hopes to die. As he pours his heart out to nobody, two cactus plants engage him in conversation. They are the reincarnations of the great Persian poets Hafez and Rumi. They not only try to dissuade him from his plan, but urge him to return to New York, where they appear again to offer their Hafez as a 30-something taxi driver and Rumi in a variety of forms. Along the way we learn a great deal about both historical and contemporary Persia (Iran) and about love, as Hafez falls in love with a precocious 14-year-old he takes on as a fare. This playful and illuminating novel-in-verse not only brings these two great Persian poets to life, but also serves as a wonderful introduction to their work. Manoucher Parvin’s imaginative love story – part contemporary fairy-tale, part mythology – not only touches the heart, but critically reflects contemporary mores, morals, philosophy, and society.

254 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2003

Reviews

[Space · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very beautiful imagery and philosophy, sometimes made me tear up. Wonderful insight into a culture foreign to me, and very nice to see male characters being totally unashamed to express their earnest emotions to each other. I quite enjoyed the way it was formatted; it's a true celebration of poetry of all kinds.

The only mark against it is that it contains pedophilia. It's not abusive, but there certainly is an age gap of a few years, with one being 15 and the other 20 iirc. I'd like to say this topic is explored with the same depth as its other ideas, but the argument essentially amounts to "Nature matures the body at this age so it should be natural to have this relationship." In my opinion, nothing is really added to the story by having the love interest be a teenager instead of a mature woman, it's almost like the author just wanted to complain about the law.

I still recommend reading it, if you can ignore that aspect. Otherwise it is a very spiritually rich book.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It gets a 2.5. I really wanted to like this book. The concept is great, but where I fell out of the story was the polemical and expository nature of a lot of the writing. I was looking for a more poetic narrative, and feeling the discovery and transformation via Rumi and Hafez through metaphors that were shown not told. There are some wonderful lines, but for a sense of transcendence and transformation I had to wait till the very end of the book...and I was worried it wouldn't come.