Identity Card

by FM-2030

In a narrative where tragedy begs to be masked by comedy, F.M. Esfandiary conveys the consequences and realities of Iranian life. In an attempt to flee the underdeveloped, bureaucratic country, a Middle Easterner searches for every possible way to obtain an identity card that will allow him to leave Iran. In this comic masterpiece we follow this alienated man on a journey to freedom against the backdrop of a society dominated by ceremonious formalities, politeness, responsibility and confusion. Iranian-born Esfandiary further develops the themes and ideas of his first two novels, one of which has been required reading for the American Foreign Service, as he sheds light on a culture and a lifestyle that are a mystery to many.

Genres: Iran, Fiction

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

FM-2030 (October 15, 1930 in Brussels – July 8, 2000 in New York) was an author, teacher, transhumanist philosopher, futurist and consultant. FM-2030 was born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary (Persian: فریدون اسفندیاری‎).

He became notable as a transhumanist with the book Are You a Transhuman? Monitoring and Stimulating Your Personal Rate of Growth in a Rapidly Changing World, published in 1989. In addition, he wrote a number of works of fiction under his birth name, F.M. Esfandiary.

The son of an Iranian diplomat, he travelled widely as a child, living in 17 countries by age 11, then, as a young man, he represented Iran as a basketball player in the 1948 Olympic Games and served on the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine from 1952 to 1954.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the "Identity Card" by Esfandiary (a.k.a. FM-2030) while moulting in my hometown of Pasadena, Texas, after almost a decade of turbulent but exciting, all consuming adventure in Africa, Middle East, Iran and Saudi Arabia with dashes into Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Turkey and Greece, where I fortunately met my future wife who, after we wed, kept leaping with me from one country to another like grasshoppers: Zambia, Malawi, Rhodesia, Tanzania, Kenya, Zaire, Bahrein, Morocco, Greece and coming to rest on the edge of Chicago, then up and out again to Tejas, depressing both of us unbeknownst to our little son who had been born in Athens and had not yet tasted the gritty adventures that lay ahead.

The frustration of ignorant authority blocking our way in these myriad countries was brilliantly illustrated by Esfandiary (FM-2030), who in his own right is worth a cursory study, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM-2030. Esfandiary's novel, "Identity Card", should be much better known than it is.

Pasadena, where I grew up and where we could safely live a pedestrian life, sort of, could not hold us for long. So, we began to yearn for parts unknown that whole year and a half that we were there.

Plenty more adventure was to be found afterwards in Algeria, Greece and Saudi Arabia, etc., even though we were to experience the agony of double-speak, obfuscation, lies, hypocrisy and out-and-out anti-Americanism at certain borders, such as Algeria's with Morocco. The most efficient and least officious country we were eveentually to find was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia working for Aramco.

If you have had similar situations you will find kinship with Esfandiary's protagonist in "Identity Card", which illustrates the spiderweb of confusion, ineffective bureaucracy and disdain for the little guy when he gets entangled in such a nightmare. I have experienced almost the same situation in every country I have lived in. It's when the average guy is governed by average people whose only guide for behavior is the state or their employer and they adhere to rules that have effects that they do not understand and don't care about the effect on the person who tries to do things the right way.

[Bob Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Kafka hits the Land of Khayyam"

In ancient times, exile was reserved for a few unfortunates, often intellectuals who had disturbed the powers that were. One thinks of Chinese poets or Roman philosophers. Jews and Armenians were rare among peoples in being made up chiefly of exiles. Siberia and Australia were once populated by exiled offenders of many kinds. Yet it is our own age in which exile has become a widespread condition. This is the era of refugees, immigrants, alienation and "the winter of our discontent". The condition of being at home nowhere is very much one of our days.

Though I know almost nothing about him, F.M. Esfandiary must have been one such person, an Iranian used to the ways of the West and its greater personal freedoms, still feeling an outsider there, but alienated from the traditions and political climate of his homeland. IDENTITY CARD must be an autobiographical novel to some considerable extent. A Westernized Iranian returns to Teheran after many years abroad. He needs an identity card to leave the country again, but he has unfortunately lost his. We have a Kafkaesque trek from office to office, with stops at various upper class parties and family dinners; we have a powerful sense of alienation and open dislike of the Shah, the Iranian political charades of the 1960s, and of the particular brand of social politesse current in Iran then. Iran draws the protagonist, like the pliant lower-class woman he dallies with, but he no longer understands her---woman/Iran---though he may think he does. Esfandiary criticizes Iran harshly for not being what he wishes it to be. The West, on the other hand, is never criticized. As a novel illustrating Iran, then, IDENTITY CARD is highly suspect. The author exposes the weaknesses of Iranian society, but never considers if all societies do not have inherent weaknesses. Iran is guilty of corruption and authoritarianism. Iranian poetry has turned shallow, Iran's officials are lazy and insincere, the Shah and his circle are hogging the country's resources. While this background earned him the enmity of the Shah's regime and meant that the manuscript had to be smuggled out of the country, the real theme of the novel can be found on pages 169-70. "The gulf between him and his countrymen had widened irreparably, and although at times he felt an indefinable closeness to some of them....most of the time he felt he was an island that had been torn away from the mainland..... He had outgrown his homeland, he had passed it by. He had matured faster than his country had progressed and therefore he could never live on equal terms...with his countrymen." You feel Esfandiary's love and hate of Iran on every page. His personal ambivalence is much stronger than the actual story.

I found this novel fascinating. It echoes with the pain of exile, of the people who are no longer at home anywhere. It gives a picture of Iranian society in the 1960s, albeit one-sided. And on a broader plane, it is one of many novels published from the once so-called Third World that portray the dilemmas of modernization in more graphic form than a shelf full of academic treatises. IDENTITY CARD may not be `great literature' but it is an important book nevertheless.

[Amir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book from about half a century ago by sheer accident. And I'm glad I did. I can't judge the book in terms of literary merit. The author expressly states at the beginning that it is not a work of satire. It is, in my opinion, a candid look at the Iranian society of the mid 1960's and how an Iranian who has lived abroad for a long time views that society and culture of Iranians and find that this nation is pushing the boundaries of absurdity. I am myself born (a few years after this book was written) and raised in Iran and find that the scenes Esfandiary depicts are depressingly familiar. He is not all negativity though. Here and there, he acknowledges the part of him that longs for some more nostalgia-inducing aspects of the Iranian culture. For me, the most interesting aspect of this book was perhaps the realization that the Iranian culture (for example, how people treat each other, their love-hate relationship with authority, etc.) hasn't really changed all that much in the course of the last 50 years. Sad, but true.

[Mirjam Penning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book got five stars from me because it was very funny to read, while on the contrary it wasn't funny at all for the protagonist. He comes to Iran with a positive mind, but that will soon fade away.
Several themes are covered. Politics, bureaucracy, corruption, chasm and love.
If you like books with theme Iran, you can't miss out on this one.

[Ephi Dardashti · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect portal into the Iranian psyche. This book captures the angst of being in Iran! Even though the book was written during the Pahlavi years it translates well into the present of reality of that country and society. The story confirms that the issues facing Iranian society are deeply rooted within that country and transcend politics and religion.

[لیلی · Rating 3 out of 5]

عجیبی این اثر تقریبا به اندازه‌ی سرگذشت و زندگی نویسنده‌شه. یعنی البته کمتر از این هم بود جای تعجب می‌داشت.
اولش که شروعش می‌کنی داستان بی‌نهایت ساده‌ی یه آدمیه که پس از سالها خارج‌نشینی اومده ایران ولی دیده اینجا هم برخلاف تصور سالیانش خیلی بیخوده و تصمیم گرفته برگرده خارج، ولی مدرک هویتی و کارت شناسایی نداره برای خروج (که حالا اصلا چطور ممکنه و پس با چی وارد شده و اینا رو کار نداریم.) و درنتیجه گیر می‌افته تو نظام بروکراتیک بی‌نهایت بی‌معنای مملکت که شکرخدا دهه‌هاست تکون نخورده، و با مفاهیمی همچون رشوه و زیرمیزی و «برو فردا بیا» و «سیستم قطعه» و حواله دادن کار به همکار بغل‌دستی و اینها مواجه میشه و هی متعجب میشه، که خب چه داستان مال سال ۴۳ باشه چه سال ۱۴۰۴ سر سوزن فرقی نداره از این جهات شکرخدا.
یعنی تا اینجا داستان طوری ساده ست که بنظر می‌رسه برای سال ۴۳ هم زیادی ساده و ابتداییه و هی فکر می‌کنی بالاخره نویسنده‌ش خارج‌نشینه و اصولا هم نویسنده‌ی برجسته‌ای نبوده و اینا.
ولی بعد کم‌کم لایه‌های جدید پیدا می‌کنه، لایه‌های غیرساده و رمانی.
وقتی کاراکتر اصلی از خارج حرف می‌زنه حسش خیلی دوگانه ست، این حس عدم تعلق به هیچ‌کجا و اینکه توی ایران همه‌ش می‌خواد دوباره بره و در عین حال حتی نمی‌دونه کجا چون چند دهه جاهای مختلف دنیا رو امتحان کرده و هیچکدوم براش خونه نشده‌ن خودش خیلی جالبه، و حتی اصل دیدگاه اعتراضی‌ش به اوضاع ایران و اینکه همه‌ش براش سواله چرا انقلابی چیزی نمیشه و فاز سیاسی اپوزیسیونی داستان، مثلا پوشش دادن میتنیگ‌های اجباری شاه با ملت که به‌زور می‌رن مردم رو می‌ریزن تو کامیون می‌برن و حتی در این راه یه نفر که نمی‌خواسته بره کشته میشه و اینا، و از اون‌ور توی خود میتینگ که شاه میاد الکی میگه زمین‌های خراسانم رو به نام رعیت می‌زنم و این از دوستش می‌پرسه واقعا؟ و یارو میگه نه معلومه که نه، اینجا روش راضی نگه داشتن رعیت همین چیزهاست. اینها خیلی حرف‌های عادی‌ایه در ظاهر ولی برای نویسنده‌ای که تقریبا تمام عمرش رو در دوران پهلوی دوم در امریکا گذرونده و قبلش هم تو ایران خونواده‌ش شغل سیاسی داشته‌ن و برای سال ۴۵ خیلی عجیبه بنظر من، این اصلا توقعی نبود که داشتم.
یا مثلا یه بحث شرق‌شناسانه‌ی خیلی جالبی یهو یه جای کتاب بین همه‌ی دیالوگهای خیلی بیهوده‌ای که من هی رج می‌زدمشون چون واقعا بیخود طولانی بودن درگرفت بین شخصیت اصلی و یک امریکایی، که من باز اصلا توقعش رو نداشتم. راجع به اینکه به کشور ما نگو پرشیا، کشور ما ایرانه. و باید با همه حقایق مثبت و منفی‌ش ببینی‌ش، نه چیزی که واسه نگاه غربی استعماری تو جالبه و نسبتی با حال حاضر ایران نداره. این خیلی عجیب نیست برای سال ۴۵؟
یه جای دیگه‌ش هم شخصیت زن داستان، که باز از اون موارد بود که تا قبلش زیادی ساده بنظر می‌رسید و تیپیکال زن جذاب و غیرانتلکتی بود که شخصیت اصلی فقط میومد شبها رو باهاش بگذرونه، یه خطابه‌ی خیلی بلندی ایراد کرد یهو خطاب بهش درباره‌ی اینکه تو در ظاهر مدرنی وگرنه اتفاقا به اندازه‌ی مردهای سنتی اینجا یه سری چیزها رو نمی‌فهمی، به همون اندازه خشونت جنسی علیه زنی که باهاته رو دوست داری (که این بحث رو مفصل تو یه صحنه‌ای باز می‌کرد و اصلا عجیب)، به اندازه‌ی همونا برای زنی که بدون حد و مرز اوکیه که باهات باشه و در عین حال فرهنگی و روشنفکر نیست ارزش قائل نیستی هرچند در ظاهر خیلی باهاش مهربون باشی، شماها هرکار هم بکنین ذاتتون شرقیه و نمی‌تونید ازش فرار کنید. این هم واقعا من رو متحیر کرد، مجددا برای سال ۴۵.
در مجموع رمان بسیار بسیار ساده‌ایه با یه سری غافلگیری عجیب وسطش که یهو تو ذهنت دو دهه از زمان خودش می‌بردش جلوتر و نزدیک‌تر به حال حاضر ما مثلا.

درباره‌ی نویسنده و زندگی عجیبش:
فریدون اسفندیاری، که خودش نامش رو تغییر داده بود به F.M.2030 پسر یه دیپلمات ایرانیه که در بچگی تو انواع کشورها زندگی کرده، تو فلسطین مدرسه می‌رفته، بعدها برای دانشگاه میره امریکا و دیگه همونجا می‌مونه. حوزه‌ی اصلی‌ش ترابشریت‌ه، خودش می‌گه نسبت به آینده نوستالژی داره و ۲۰۳۰ تو اسمش هم برای همینه چون مطمئن بوده تا اون سال اتفاقات خیلی مهمی برای بشریت می‌افته. وقتی هم حدود بیست سال پیش تو امریکا می‌میره جسدش رو به روش سرمازیستی حفظ می‌کنن چون گویا معتقدن قراره یه وقتی بتونه به زندگی برگرده و اینا. اولین فرد جهان هم هست که این روش رو درباره‌ش پیاده کرده‌ن.
اساسا یکی از عجیب‌ترین ایرانی‌ها. :))