Reading Lolita in Tehran

I have to say that if this book had not been one of my "required" books (#66), I don't think I ever would have finished it.  After forcing myself to get through the first hundred pages or so, it did pick up some.  The author focused much more on the books that the group was reading (Lolita, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Miller, Pride and Prejudice, and others) than I expected, and I think that was what made it so difficult to get through.  The majority of this book felt like a series of critical literary essays rather than any kind of story.  By the end I was able to look back and appreciate or see how she used the students' reactions to the books as a way of expressing how they felt about what was going on around them.  I admit to not knowing much about Iran's history, so I did resort to having to review some things on Wikipedia a few times (although I'm still a little fuzzy about a few things).  The timeline skipped around, which added to some of my confusion.  And I wonder if things would have made more sense if I were more familiar with some of the books she uses, because I generally did enjoy the sections better that involved books I had previously read.  Overall, I guess I'm just a little surprised at how popular this book was -- on the New York Times bestseller list for over one hundred weeks.  Don't know that I would recommend it.