Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan

This is a memoir of a British man in his mid-twenties living in Iran (and visiting Afghanistan) and discovering a culture he never expected. The contradictory nature of Iran is explored with Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (an epic poem about Persia's ancient shahs written about 1000 years ago) as its axis -- through his understanding of the Shahnameh, and its importance to Persians, he comes to better understand Iran itself as well as Iran's place in the Middle East. That is, how it is similar, but also how it is set apart, and especially in how the Persians themselves view themselves as apart from many of the cultures surrounding them. I won't say you get a complete, unbiased representation of Iranian thinking -- most of the people he encounters are the intellectual elite -- but it certainly taught me more about the Persian way of thinking than many of the other books I've read on the country and culture. If, ultimately, Jubber comes off as having a somewhat sentimental view of Iran, it is only because he is reflecting how the Persians themselves view their country, their culture, and their history.