The occasion of the interview with the writer Marjan Kamali is the publication of the novel Zajednečka teajanka after the great success of the novel Knjižara u Teheran , also published by Buybook.
Buybook editor Ena Hasečić spoke with the writer.
Unlike her husband Parviz, Darya never fully integrated into American society. Her closest friends are Kavita and Yung-Ja – immigrants like her – probably because they share the same feelings about the impossibility of fitting into a new society. Did Darya ever truly believe that she would return to Iran, or did she know deep down that it would not happen?
I wanted Darja to somehow be a representative of all immigrants who come to America and who constantly deal with the feeling of missing home. Darja constantly dreams of returning to Iran - but the only problem is that the Iran she knew no longer exists. I think she knew deep down that she would never be able to return because Iran has changed a lot and her children have become part of America and American society. She finds common ground with Kavita and Yung-Ja, who are immigrants themselves and can understand the alienation and longing that comes with losing one's homeland, and therefore a large part of oneself. They are the ones who understand Darja best.
When we talk about this topic, can you, and if the answer is yes, identify with the main character who still encounters difficulties in fitting into her "new" life even after fifteen years. Do you ever feel that life on the dash – as it is called in the novel. Did you weave autobiographical elements into the story of Darja?
I started writing The Common Tea Party when I was in my twenties, so the autobiographical elements are actually in Mina's story, not Darja's. Regardless, as time goes by, I can identify more with the character of Darje! I didn't feel as many difficulties as Darja, because I came to America when I was ten years old (just like Darja's daughter Mina) and it was different to fit in as a girl than as an adult woman. However, that life on the dash speaks to my experience. While writing that part of the novel, I was expressing exactly how I felt as an Iranian-American. There is a sentence in the novel: She knew how to wave her legs on that line that simultaneously defined and denied what she was: an Iranian-American. Neither the first nor the second words actually belonged to her. Like many people, I was on the fence - a foreigner in my homeland, and I didn't feel like America was my home either. I've been searching for balance for years. The dash was hers – a tiny, potentially unsafe place. On the line she will sit, stand and, soon, like a seasoned acrobat, balance perfectly, never falling, never giving one side the upper hand, content to walk that thin line. However, like Mina, I realized that a sense of belonging does not necessarily have to be tied to place or ethnicity. Instead of being a limiting small space, the dash is actually a bridge between cultures and I found my home on that bridge.
Do you think that the next generation, Mina's children, will ever feel the same burden that Darja and Mina felt? The burden of feeling out of place in a well-known country and the dilemma of whether to stay or return to where we feel we belong more. Will the next generations face it?
This is a great question! The best way to answer it is to look at my own children because I am Mina's generation myself. I don't think that burden of feeling like I don't belong there for them. They don't think about going back somewhere because they know they definitely wouldn't belong there. That's why they are very American. But regardless, I still think that even that generation carries certain traumas from previous generations. We all inherit, in a way, both the good and bad experiences of our parents and their parents. So, even though the new generations feel comfortable in America, part of them is still deeply connected to Iranian culture.
In addition to the theme of immigrants' integration into a new society, an important theme in the novel is the relationship between mother and daughter. Why is Darja so dedicated to finding the perfect husband for Mina? Is she trying to escape reality in this way?
Yes, I definitely think that the idea of finding the perfect husband is a form of escape for Mina. It is also her way of controlling a situation in which she feels completely helpless. Like many Iranian women of her generation, she is educated and passionate about a career that she has not been able to achieve, not so much because of the revolution and war in Iran, but because she got married, had three children and realized that it is difficult to balance her private life with building a career. This is the story of many of us, no matter where we grew up. That is why Darya, with the help of her love of mathematics, manages to control and be involved in the lives of her children, even if it means creating Excel spreadsheets. It is her way of making sure that she has done everything to make her daughter's life better, even if the result is exactly the opposite.
In the second part of the novel, mother and daughter will travel to Iran. How many of them have been changed by this trip? It's as if Darja realized after the trip that she doesn't need Excel spreadsheets and that she's no longer part of the culture she believed she belonged to for so long. It's as if she finally realized that life doesn't always have to be as orderly and precise as the solutions to mathematical problems.
I wanted to show how much the trip to Iran and the experience of meeting Sam helped Darya realize that life doesn’t always work like Excel spreadsheets or mathematical formulas – there is not just one right solution, but many. The book begins with Darya’s search for the perfect husband for her daughter. However, when she meets Sam and returns to Iran, she realizes that there is no perfect person for anyone. Darya and her husband Parviz have been through a lot together, but at some point she realizes that she could very well have been with Sam or one of her young suitors if the situation had been different. There is not just one right person for anyone and there are no clear answers that she can write into the Excel spreadsheet of her life. An important moment in Darya’s life for her own development was the one in which she finally realized all this – that sometimes there are different solutions to a single problem.
I'm sure our readers who have read both The Bookstore in Tehran and The Common Tea Party are wondering if you faced any challenges in writing it and which character was the most difficult to create. Which character is your favorite?
Both novels were difficult to write, but in different ways. The Common Tea Party is my first book, so it was a complicated process. Many times I didn't know if I was doing the right thing and there was a lot that I had to learn along the way. I had some experience in writing The Bookstore in Tehran , but the path was still thorny. Someone said that writing a novel is like hiking. It's easier if you already have experience, but that doesn't necessarily make the journey any easier. When we talk about the characters that were the hardest to shape - it's always the main character. Mina in the Common Tea Room and Roya in the Bookstore in Tehran . However, I have to admit that my favorite heroine in the Common Tea Party is Darja. No matter how frustrating some of her moves are at times, I sympathize with her deeply! On the other hand, it might surprise you, but my favorite character in Tehran Bookstore is none other than Mrs. Aslan. I am aware that she is not a positive heroine and that she has many flaws, but it was as if she truly came to life only in the chapter where her life story was given. He is a very complex character that made my job as an author easier.
Your new novel The Lioness of Tehran will be published this summer. The novel is set in Iran and focuses on the story of friendship and betrayal through the destinies of two women. What was the inspiration for this novel?
Less than a year after The Bookstore in Tehran was published, the pandemic began. At the time, I was spending more time on Instagram and came across a post by a woman from Iran who was a friend of mine - not only on social media, but once upon a time in "real life". We were best friends in elementary school in Tehran. We spent every day together, we wrote our homework together, we shared dreams about what we want to become when we grow up. In addition, we shared the fear that came with growing up during the war, in a society that increasingly turned to religion. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, I spent many nights in the basement while bombs fell around us. Every time I left the basement and went back up the stairs to my room, I was aware of the new chance I was given. The same feeling permeated me as my family left Iran – in a hurry, with the cooker still on the stove, without saying goodbye to my best friend. When she was only ten years old, she came to New York alone, and my best friend stayed in Iran. That's why during the pandemic, while I was looking through my friend's posts, I started thinking about different life paths. I'm in America, I've become a writer, and she's still in Iran, working for a human rights organization. I couldn't stop thinking about how much childhood friendships manage to shape us and how strong the influence of friendships that are broken is. And those friendship breaks are painful and in a way romantic. I knew I had to write a story about one such friendship.
Finally, what book are you currently reading and which authors would you recommend to readers in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
I am currently reading the novel The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane. I love her novels and her previous novel Ask Again, Yes is one of my favorites. I love the works of Ann Patchett, Mary Beth Keane, GG Márquez and Toni Morrison. The first two are modern authors, the second two are now classic authors, but regardless, I want to recommend them to my dear readers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Finally, I would like to invite all dear readers to connect with me on social media and feel free to write to me.
Instagram: marjankamali7
Facebook: MarjanKamaliAuthor