In her bestselling book Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi writes of a beloved friend and advisor who tells her, ``Lady, we do not need your truths but your fiction -- if you're any good, perhaps you can trickle in some sort of truth, but spare us your real feelings.''
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A NEW ROLE
Right now, though, Nafisi is reveling in a new role: that of U.S. citizen. Myriad crises -- economic disasters, wars on two fronts -- make this an odd time to become an American, but Nafisi sees things differently.
``Nabokov would talk about life being planned by this Grand Planner, and I find it interesting that just as I became a citizen, I finished the book. But I feel I'm fortunate, because you have to go through a crisis in order to change. Hope is based on crisis. When things are not going well, you start questioning. I'm glad to be part of the crisis.''