Khakpour, Porochista 1978–

PERSONAL:

Born 1978, in Tehran, Iran. Education: Sarah Lawrence College, B.A.; Johns Hopkins University, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—flammableobjects@gmail.com.

CAREER:

Writer. Worked as a freelance writer for various magazines and Web sites, including Village Voice, Chicago Reader, Paper, Flaunt, Nylon, Bidoun, and Alef.

WRITINGS:

Sons and Other Flammable Objects (novel), Grove Press (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Porochista Khakpour was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1978. She was three years old when her family left their homeland shortly after the 1979 revolution in Iran that changed the country from a monarchy to an Islamic republic. Her debut novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects, is about an Iranian family—Darius Adam, his wife Lala, and their son Xerxes—who flee their homeland during the Iran Revolution and begin a new life in Southern California. Darius longs for his homeland, Lala tries to adopt the ways of the Western world, and Xerxes hopes to free himself from his Iranian identity and distance himself from his father. After Xerxes leaves Los Angeles for New York, Darius makes a visit to see his son that results in both men not speaking to one another for several months. Not long after 9/11, the family's Iranian identity is called into question, as well as their need to come together as a family again.

Many critics praised the way that Khakpour handled the relationship between father and son in the book. "What makes Khakpour's novel so interesting is the way she portrays [the misunderstandings between father and son] as being unclear, subtle and barely comprehensible when retold. She captures the interior worlds of two proud men with a knowing wink, depicting how their perspectives of the same object (or indeed, of one another) either conflict or fail to converge," concluded Tess Taylor in her review of the book for the San Francisco Chronicle. Quarterly Conversation's Callie Miller felt that "in Khakpour's deft hands, we see a father who desperately wants to connect with his son at every turn but always fumbles his chance. Some of these moments are poignant and painful; others are laugh-out-loud funny. Khakpour's biting humor, delightfully knowing asides, and careful digging into the interior worlds of two equally stubborn men give the novel an intelligence and a crisp charm that is welcome and quite unexpected in such weighty matters."

In an interview with 3 Quarks Daily's Asad Raza, Khakpour discussed her ability to so convincingly portray the two main male characters in the book: "I have always either written from the perspective of or about men. Particularly middle-aged men. I don't really know why this is, but I suspect it has to do with the fact that I was always a reader of the Western canon … and that literature was primarily written by and about and for men. I have also always been fascinated by men in crisis particularly, and this novel, one could say, is also about Xerxes's quarter-life crisis and Darius's mid-life one. So that was very natural for me."

Despite some minor criticisms, several other reviewers praised Khakpour's overall effort in Sons and Other Flammable Objects. A Kirkus Reviews critic felt that the author shows "a barbed, appealing sensibility and a trenchant wit, and while her book meanders in the middle … she gets the plot back on track by the end." New York Times Book Review's Judy Budnitz noted that "Khakpour's biting humor and acute cultural observations carry the book. Both are in evidence in a scene in which Lala, eager to forge a connection with a new black friend, begins telling him that the Iranian equivalent of Santa Claus is a festive fellow in blackface, to their growing mutual discomfort. And though Khakpour's characters are somewhat overburdened with symbolism, they are also imbued with a genuine humanity that wins our affection." "Khakpour is an elegant writer, and she imparts a perfect sense of the ironies of being Persian in America," wrote a critic in a review of the book for Publishers Weekly.

In her interview with Raza, Khakpour commented on the book: "I wanted to write a book I would want to read, I guess—written by someone who was from my part of the world, but yet pushed the prose beyond the limits of what ‘my people’ had done in this country yet…. I wanted someone who was not even interested in Iran or 9/11 or Middle Eastern men to be able to read the novel and just enjoy the actual writing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2007, review of Sons and Other Flammable Objects.

Library Journal, August 1, 2007, review of Sons and Other Flammable Objects.

New Yorker, November 19, 2007, review of Sons and Other Flammable Objects.

New York Times Book Review, September 9, 2007, Judy Budnitz, review of Sons and Other Flammable Objects.

Publishers Weekly, June 18, 2007, review of Sons and Other Flammable Objects.

Quarterly Conversation, winter, 2008, Callie Miller, review of Sons and Other Flammable Objects.

San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 2007, Tess Taylor, review of Sons and Other Flammable Objects, p. C2.

ONLINE

Porochista Khakpour's Web log,http://porochistakhakpour.blogspot.com (June 19, 2008).

3 Quarks Daily,http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/ (February 18, 2008), Asad Raza, author interview.