Will I love Song of a Captive Bird?

The choices Forugh Farrokhzad made shocked me at times, which made the story even more compelling. This Iranian poet broke my heart with her desperation to live her life true to herself. I’m gutted by the fact that in another country, Forugh wouldn’t have needed to make such drastic choices to be a poet and a woman with dreams and needs.

Listening to the story read by Mozhan Marno, a favorite actress of mine, magnified the intensity of the story. Feminism takes many forms and is highly impacted by our surroundings. This story made me dig deep into how far… show more.

I enjoyed the presentation of the historical and biographical point of view in this book which follows Forough Farrokhzad from a forced marriage to her life as a poet and filmmaker. The poetry from Forough Farrokhzad itself is used to give insight into her thoughts and desires. Her poem "Sin" was one that I read and re-read at different points during the book because of how it intertwined with the narrative. 

This is a novel based on the life of Iran’s first modern feminist poet, Forough Farrokhzad. Her life was short – she died in 1967 at the age of 32 in a car accident – but her poetry, which we may categorize now as ‘confessional,’ scandalized Iranian society (think: Sylvia Plath). She suffered for it, alternately lauded and maligned by a society that was moving away from tradition. For her art, she was labeled insane and placed in a mental institution for a time, had her small son wrenched away from her by her husband’s family, and was treated with… show more.