Travel to Middle East

Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran

Format: Hardcover
Author: Jason Elliot
ReleaseDate: 03 October, 2006
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Rating:

good, not great
For the most part, I was - the rich culture, history and art of Iran, as well as the local customs and modern problems were brought out by his anecdotes. I loved Jason Elliots first book about Afghanistan, and expected to be engaged with this one. And tho I struggled with some of his musings about Persian architecture, its a topic I have an interest in. However, his verboise descriptions of poetry and poets, and of name after name of historic references, lost me several times, and so I skimmed a bit. Still - he is a wonderful writer, and I'd read more by him. Just wish I had more background to understand some of his narrative.

Very Satisfying
It helps too that he can read persian. Elliot does his research well and writes with an understanding of the local culture. I was expecting to find accounts of encounters with oridinary iranians and conversations with them revealing their attitudes and opinions. Instead, I found a travelogue filled with descriptions of art in Iran. It was just as nice to read of the history of art in Persia. He appears to be a genuine and hardworking student of persian art and works hard to decipher the intentions of the persian artists and convey their subtlties and magnificence to us. There are descriptions of encounters with locals. Amusing anecdotes of encounters with taxi drivers who are trying to rip him off his dollars or pounds.

All in all a very informative and interesting book.

An outsider's deep exploration of Iran
Most media reviews of the book have been highly laudatory. Mirrors of the Unseen offers an informed Englishman's perspective of Iran, pictured in the passages of experience of the author's seemingly random travels over three years, augmented by larger readings of history -- tempered by an apparent knowledge of the importance of mysticism in the Iranian worldview. One by an Iranian of dubious extraction, Amir Taheri, indicated some vitriolic distaste for the book's origin and message, raising my interest further. The latter review dwelt mainly on the missed opportunities of Elliot's visits, which merely confirms Elliot's own view that the culture of Iran is immense when viewed historically, and could not possibly be adequately seen in three years. Likewise, a cursory reading of Elliot's book would inevitably miss many of its deeper points, as did Taheri's. Elliot makes every effort to emphasize the importance of historical art as the purveyor of messages sent over the course of thousands of years -- messages not out of date, but bearing lasting practical value. As such, his book has worth both as a tale of travel by a modern Westerner looking, full of humor and humility, to understand another country, and as an entryway for journeys into philosophy and the meaning of art and science taken at a higher level. .

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