Mahmoud Dowlatabadi and His Family, in Conversation with Lily Golestan
Literature Service of Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) – Sohrab Bashardoust: Books that endeavor to portray the lives and personalities of artists, not from an external perspective or the viewpoint of those who know the artist only through their artistic work, but through conversations with those closest to them, always carry a dual appeal: they provide new insights into the mechanism of an artist’s creation and offer a more human perspective of someone often seen only as a “name” and “work.” Such books provide a rare opportunity to bridge the gap between the formal world of literature and daily life; a bridge that helps understand the complexities of artistic work and fosters intimacy and familiarity with the artist as a spouse, parent, or friend.
The book “In the Mirror: A Conversation with Mahmoud Dowlatabadi and Mehr Azar Maher, Siavash, Sara, and Farhad Dowlatabadi,” compiled by Lily Golestan and published by Cheshmeh Publication, is an example of such books. This book is the product of Lily Golestan’s interviews with Mahmoud Dowlatabadi and his family; an effort to see Dowlatabadi not only as a great writer with prominent works such as “Kelidar” and “The Missing Soluch,” but also as a human being whose meaning is found in the usual comings and goings of life, in family sorrows and joys, and in his relationship with his wife and children.
Lily Golestan’s Introduction; A Narrative of “Kelidar”‘s Popularity Among People
Lily Golestan begins the introduction to “In the Mirror” by recounting her first encounter with Mahmoud Dowlatabadi on national television, while Dowlatabadi was rehearsing a television play directed by Abbas Javanmard.
She also tells two anecdotes: one about her encounter with a municipality employee who was reading “Kelidar,” and another about riding in a taxi whose driver had a volume of “Kelidar” with him, placed on the passenger seat.
With these two anecdotes, Golestan demonstrates Dowlatabadi’s popularity and his presence in the collective memory; a tangible and popular presence, to the extent that seeing his novel in the hands of people from various professions can spark a conversation and even resolve a problem for a client seeking help at an office.
Through her introduction, Golestan effectively establishes the emotional atmosphere of the book: Dowlatabadi as a cultural figure who is not merely a professional writer but a part of society’s lived experience. She continues her introduction by discussing the genesis of “In the Mirror” and gives a brief explanation, then we enter the first part of the book.
Conversation with Dowlatabadi; The Path to Forming a Literary World
The first section of the book, which is the longest, is dedicated to an interview with Dowlatabadi himself. In this interview, Dowlatabadi speaks about topics such as how his interest in storytelling developed, his initial attempts and experiences in this field, his long-standing love for books and stories, and the environment and geography that shaped the roots of his narrative style.
In this section, the reader not only becomes more or less familiar with the process of Dowlatabadi’s works taking shape but also encounters a mindset that has traversed a difficult and persistent path to transform lived experience into literary narrative.
Dowlatabadi explains in his interview with Lily Golestan how stories and fictional characters emerge and develop in his mind.
Mehr Azar Maher; A Wife Who Has Seen the True Shades of Life with a Writer
The next two sections of “In the Mirror” include statements from Mehr Azar Maher, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s wife, about him, as well as an interview with Mehr Azar. In this interview, Mehr Azar Maher speaks about how she met Dowlatabadi, his imprisonment during the years before the revolution and how that period passed, and other difficult, bitter, and sweet experiences of living with a writer whose inner world is sometimes so filled with the commotion of characters that it overshadows external life. In this interview, we see Dowlatabadi both as a pleasant husband to live with and as a writer who moves between two parallel worlds, real and imaginary, becoming a strange and incomprehensible person when immersed in his imaginary world.
In the interview with Mehr Azar, we learn that she reads Dowlatabadi’s stories fresh, at the very moment of their creation. She speaks of her husband’s mood swings and emotional fluctuations, mentions their quarrels and reconciliations, and recounts how Dowlatabadi felt when writing parts of “Kelidar” and “The Colonel.” Mehr Azar, however, emphasizes that Dowlatabadi’s temperament has become calmer in recent years compared to the past.
Dowlatabadi’s wife recounts in one part of this interview that during the period when Dowlatabadi’s father was living with them, i.e., at the end of his father’s life, Dowlatabadi was so engrossed in his work that he did not pay much attention to his father’s condition, and suddenly his mother informed him that his father had passed away.
Mehr Azar also describes Dowlatabadi as a responsible husband and father.
Sara Dowlatabadi; Father and Daughter Conversations
“In the Mirror” continues with Lily Golestan’s introduction to her conversations with Dowlatabadi’s children, followed by the words of the children of the author of “The Passed Days of the Old People” about their father.
Sara Dowlatabadi, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s daughter and second child, speaks about topics such as her conversations with her father at various ages, from a time when her voice was choked with fear upon hearing gunshots in the alley and her father tried to make her speak again, about consulting her father regarding books, and about her father’s nocturnal writing. She recounts that when her father was working and Sara talked to him, her father, even if focused on his work, would not get angry at her garrulousness. Sara says that when her own daughter talks to her while she is working, she does not have as much patience as her father and tells her daughter to say what she wants after she finishes her work. She also talks about her father’s free and non-authoritarian upbringing style and says that her father never dictated what she should or should not read, subtly and indirectly guiding her.
Siavash Dowlatabadi; Hard Years, Dusty Memories
Siavash Dowlatabadi, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s eldest son and first child, refers to the more difficult and high-pressure periods of his father’s life more than his siblings, as he remembers those periods more vividly. He recalls the years Dowlatabadi spent in prison during the pre-revolution era, as well as his father’s friends in the years leading up to the revolution; friends such as Mehdi Fathi and Mohammad Reza Lotfi and others whom Dowlatabadi would take Siavash with him to visit.
Siavash presents a picture of Dowlatabadi’s life that is linked to the political and social fabric of the period he mostly speaks about, portraying Dowlatabadi’s family life within the context of turbulent and tumultuous times in Iranian history.
Farhad Dowlatabadi; A Closer and More Intimate Picture
Farhad Dowlatabadi, Dowlatabadi’s third and last child, speaks about his father a little more comfortably than other family members. He speaks of his mother’s efforts and her significant role in creating conditions for Dowlatabadi to write. Farhad also has a brief but important complaint about his father, which he expresses gently, not with anger; his point is that his father appreciates his mother and her efforts and important role in his life less than he should.
Siavash’s narrative of his father, while affectionate like those of other Dowlatabadi family members, brings Dowlatabadi closer to the stature of an ordinary but complex human being. Perhaps it can be said that this section of the book, a little more than other sections, shows that every great writer is, first and foremost, a human being grappling with everyday limitations and shortcomings.
Some Shortcomings of the Book
Despite all its merits, the book also has some weaknesses that, if absent, would have presented us with a richer and more cohesive image of Dowlatabadi as a writer and family man. The most significant weakness of the book is the lack of coherence in organizing the conversations. Some memories are repeated in different places, whereas it would have been better if they were grouped together during the interview arrangement. Or some narratives are placed where they do not belong and have no relevance to the preceding and following statements, and it would have been better to rearrange them for a better and more logical order.
In some cases, the questions and answers are not harmonious. Another point is the missing questions; questions that could have told us more details about Dowlatabadi’s family and professional life and provided a more accurate picture of the behind-the-scenes of his work.
Final Word
Overall, “In the Mirror” is a valuable effort to provide a document of the family and professional life of one of the most important contemporary writers and the relationship between daily life and the work of writing. This book is not only about Dowlatabadi but also about the difficult coexistence of art and family and daily life, showing a glimpse of life with a successful artist with a brilliant imagination and the hardships and attractions of such a life, although this document could have included more details and narratives to make the picture more accurate.
