To celebrate National Reading Group Day 2015 on 20 June, we launched a nationwide search for the book that reading groups were most excited to read and champion this year – our Reading Group Newcomer of 2015.
The Temporary Bride, a memoir of love and food in Iran by London-based writer Jennifer Klinec was the outright winner, receiving over a third of the total votes on our online poll. Three lucky reading groups were chosen to review the book and have a very special meeting with Jennifer herself.
Wine Women and Words in Barnet, London invited Jennifer to dinner. Find out what they thought of the book and meeting Jennifer below.
Wine, Women and Words’ nine members have known each other for many years after meeting, through their children, in the primary school playground in Finchley, London. They credit their reading group, which meets roughly every six weeks, with giving them intellectual stimulation beyond the boundaries of family life and work. “Our group is an important outlet for us all; we’ve been away for book group weekends,” adds Maya Bauer. “We cry together, laugh together and we share our lives – we are a sisterhood.”
What did you most enjoy about the book?
We all loved the depiction of her life at home and the very vivid evocations of her London kitchen when she was giving lessons – her passion for food really shone through here and several of us wished we’d had the opportunity to try her cookery classes. These mouthwatering descriptions continued throughout her food and cultural journey into Iran and were a real highlight of the book. We all wanted to try Iranian food after finishing the book and ended up have a group meeting in a buzzing Iranian restaurant which did not disappoint.
What were the main themes from the book that you discussed?
Obviously the food took centre stage but the cultural background in which the book was set raised lots of discussion. Issues around cultural freedom, treatment and the role of women, sexism, immigration, cross cultural relationships and families, family obligations and loyalties, love, passion, sex and Islam in Iran versus the rest of the world were heatedly debated.
Did anything surprise you about the book?
We were incredibly surprised that the Iranian regime would tolerate ‘temporary marriages’ for the sake of convenience. It seemed very much at odds with our knowledge of Iran. As we got towards the end of the book we were also surprised about the short time span in which the memoir took place and the speed at which the relationship developed between Jennifer and Vahid.
How would you describe the book in 3 words?
This was a hard one. There are so many good words to use. We finally settled on forbidden, passionate and honest.
Tell us about your meeting with Jennifer Klinec.
We were quite nervous about meeting Jennifer as we didn’t know what to expect. She turned out, however, to be a warm, interesting and genuine person who brought her book to life with her stories. It was a real treat to listen to her personal quest to reveal Iran, its people, food and culture from a unique perspective.
Talking to her as a group quickly revealed that we all read and interpret a book from the perspective of our own life experiences, as we all had a different take on her writing. It was, therefore, enlightening to hear that Jennifer’s feelings and reasons for her actions were not always aligned to our initial understanding of her motivations and family dynamics. On meeting she came across as fearless but not reckless and we loved that she had the courage to follow her heart and dreams. She is proof that women have travelled a long way over the last century: the suffragettes and feminists would applaud her, as do we. We hope she writes a sequel.
Get involved
The Temporary Bride is now out in paperback. You can find out more about Jennifer Klinec on her website or follow her on Twitter.
To get your reading group involved in other exciting reading projects, sign up to Reading Groups for Everyone and visit our Noticeboard for all our latest opportunities.
