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Forward
After the revolution, thirteen-year-old Ylenia - haunted by the silence of her mother's prolonged mourning and her own paralyzing inhibitions - immigrates to New York with her mother. As an adult, Ylenia must come to terms with her deep fear of loss and the significance of how we choose to live our lives.
FORWARD is a novel-in-stories, a fragmented and interconnected composite of glimpses and individuals - all of whom remind us of our shared vulnerability, strength, ennui, joy, fear and wilderness.
FORWARD is a novel-in-stories, a fragmented and interconnected composite of glimpses and individuals - all of whom remind us of our shared vulnerability, strength, ennui, joy, fear and wilderness.
420 pages, Paperback
46 people want to read
About the author
Shabnam Piryaei
5 books5 followersShabnam Piryaei has been awarded the Poets & Writers Amy Award and the Transport of the Aim Poetry Prize, as well as grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Her short films have been screened at film festivals and art galleries in the U.S. and internationally.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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May 11, 2022Full disclosure: the author was a recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. Having said that, I must say that this book sat on my bookshelves for six years because every time I looked at the cover, I simply couldn't imagine reading the novel inside. With apologies, this book has the worst cover art I have ever seen and I've seen a lot of cover art. I do wonder how many people have picked up the book and then put it down just because of its cover. When I finally decided to give it a go, I had low expectations, again because of its cover. However, it's quite a good book. The story is not told in a straightforward fashion but is, rather, fragmented. It slips in and out of present time, in and out of the perspectives of various characters who often seemed unrelated to each other and to the main story. But it's compelling nonetheless: with well-drawn characters, believable situations, and a way of looking at the immigrant experience that I've not seen before. The main character Ylenia must face the painful alteration of her country after "the transition", then the loss of that country, along with the loss of her best friend There and the woman who becomes her best friend Here. I was impressed with the author's command of place, individual settings, and characterizations. I'd definitely recommend this book, especially for Book-Talk groups.
May 27, 2014
FORWARD, the novel by Iranian-American poet Shabnam Piryaei, is by no means an “easy read.” It is not a book to which one curls up on a rainy Sunday hoping to get lost in. It is, ultimately, a poet’s novel. Composed of a series of brief segments and an ever-increasing cast of characters, many of whom are tenuously connected, the book can feel like the reader is being led into a room, then taken out of it, then led into another room, then taken out, then led into another room, etc.
Yet the book is undeniably beautiful. Piryaei is a gifted writer with a knack for nuanced observations. Her writing is atmospheric, powerful and evocative, and it is when she is writing as a poet that she is at her best. And despite its mosaic of characters and stories, FORWARD effectively conveys a single storyline: Ylenia—a girl living in a country referred to only as “There”—endures a revolution in her homeland before immigrating to the U.S. She must come to terms with loss, privilege, loneliness and the imperative of moving forward with the gift of our lives.
Piryaei’s first book, Ode to Fragile (Plain View Press, 2010), was a collection of poetry and short dramatic scenes that hummed with honest and raw emotion. FORWARD conveys the same overwhelming compassion for humanity, the same deep and resonating feeling, and much of the same beauty as the author’s first book. These are genuine human stories that reflect the diversity of American life—in particular that of New York City. Ms. Piryaei is, after all, a young American. She was raised in California and lived for eight years in New York, and she is part of an enormous population of Iranians in their twenties and thirties for whom the United States is home. Many of these—such as authors Porochista Khakpour, Dalia Sofer and Ms. Piryaei—are boldly and candidly complicating the traditionally accepted narratives and characterizations of Middle Eastern women in the Middle East and abroad.
Given its frank and creative expressions of sexuality, fear, grief, ego, political repression and torture, FORWARD will undoubtedly be an excellent text for a college course on contemporary immigrant writing, women’s literature or Middle Eastern fiction. And with its refreshingly multi-ethnic cast of gay, straight, living, dead, daring and cowardly characters, Ms. Piryaei’s book is also a subtle, moving and original piece of art, and a significant addition to the canon of contemporary literary fiction.
Yet the book is undeniably beautiful. Piryaei is a gifted writer with a knack for nuanced observations. Her writing is atmospheric, powerful and evocative, and it is when she is writing as a poet that she is at her best. And despite its mosaic of characters and stories, FORWARD effectively conveys a single storyline: Ylenia—a girl living in a country referred to only as “There”—endures a revolution in her homeland before immigrating to the U.S. She must come to terms with loss, privilege, loneliness and the imperative of moving forward with the gift of our lives.
Piryaei’s first book, Ode to Fragile (Plain View Press, 2010), was a collection of poetry and short dramatic scenes that hummed with honest and raw emotion. FORWARD conveys the same overwhelming compassion for humanity, the same deep and resonating feeling, and much of the same beauty as the author’s first book. These are genuine human stories that reflect the diversity of American life—in particular that of New York City. Ms. Piryaei is, after all, a young American. She was raised in California and lived for eight years in New York, and she is part of an enormous population of Iranians in their twenties and thirties for whom the United States is home. Many of these—such as authors Porochista Khakpour, Dalia Sofer and Ms. Piryaei—are boldly and candidly complicating the traditionally accepted narratives and characterizations of Middle Eastern women in the Middle East and abroad.
Given its frank and creative expressions of sexuality, fear, grief, ego, political repression and torture, FORWARD will undoubtedly be an excellent text for a college course on contemporary immigrant writing, women’s literature or Middle Eastern fiction. And with its refreshingly multi-ethnic cast of gay, straight, living, dead, daring and cowardly characters, Ms. Piryaei’s book is also a subtle, moving and original piece of art, and a significant addition to the canon of contemporary literary fiction.
June 1, 2014
A novel, but also like flash-fiction. Really beautiful poetry in it, but also a really interesting story and cast of characters.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews