Voices from Iran

By S. Kim Henson  

DECEMBER 3, 2010 3:03 p.m. (10)

Author Elizabeth Eslami never called herself Iranian-American prior to her debut novel, “Bone Worship,” which was released in January.

Raised in Gaffney by her doctor father, originally from Tehran, and her American mother, a nurse-turned-homemaker, she often overlooked her Iranian background. Although not autobiographical, Eslami explores her roots along with her character, Jasmine Fahroodhi, who was also brought up in a small Southern town by an Iranian father and American mother.

Eslami is returning to the Upstate Dec. 11 for family time and a book reading and signing in Spartanburg at Hub City Bookshop.

Inspired by the structure of “Meatless Days” by Sara Suleri, a writer born in Pakistan, and the voice of American fiction writer Lorrie Moore, Eslami said the “light bulb moment” came one evening when she was watching a documentary on “Animal Planet.” The production was about elephants and the theory of bone worship, how the mammals recognize and visit the bones of their ancestors and caress them in “a worshipful way.”

“That idea was so poignant and beautiful to me – and still is – that it immediately felt like the heart of the book. Trying to understand one’s loved ones from the inside out, regardless of what stands in the way. Death or time or culture,” she said.

WANT TO GO?

What: Book Reading & Signing Where: Hub City Bookshop 186 West Main Street Spartanburg, S.C. When: Saturday evening, December 11, 2010, 5 to 7 Web site: www.elizabetheslami.com Blog: www.elizabetheslami.blogspot.com

Jasmine obsesses about bones, symbolic since she is the daughter of a radiologist who takes pictures of them. After Jasmine drops out of college and returns to her small Southern hometown, her father and mother tell her their intention to find her a husband.

Jasmine, in the meantime, mulls over her failure, her identity and the insight of how little she knows about her father. Eslami said about Jasmine’s reaction to the arranged marriage, “She accepts her parents’ role in helping define her through a match.”

Steering clear of Iran’s politics in her novel speaks to Eslami’s belief that Iranian-American authors have more stories to tell beyond the country’s politically charged environment.

Although she wants readers to take an interest in Iran’s history and its current political situation, she said it does not always have to be addressed anymore than America’s politics in American fiction. She said, “As writers, we create problems for ourselves when we start with agendas, however important they may be to us, at the expense of character and story.”

Eslami graduated from New York’s Sarah Lawrence College and began her novel while working toward a degree at Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. She attended Saint Paul’s Catholic School for elementary and Spartanburg Day during high school.

Much of her encouragement to write, she said, came from teachers throughout grade school, high school and college.

“I’m not sure I would have believed in myself as someone who could one day have a career as a writer without that early support,” she said.

Her parents were encouraging as well although her father suggested she write as a hobby, secondary to a real job.

She said, “Believe it or not, we’ve barely talked about the book with each other. When I call them, they are far more interested in whether I’m maintaining my car or going to the dentist regularly.”

“I think my folks are still mystified by what I do, and I suppose I can’t blame them for that. It’s a strange art and a stranger business,” she said.

After her graduate school, Eslami planned to teach and use connections from the MFA program to acquire an agent. Instead, she moved with her husband, Lyle Dechant, and their big, black dog, Denali, to a town of 3,000 in Montana where most of the jobs were in the cattle industry.

She briefly considered being a veterinary technician but then ended up working as a housekeeper at a hotel and for years as a maid in people’s homes. The experience for her writing career, she said, was invaluable to have time to think and to observe people, “Nobody pays attention to the maid. So you get a real sense of how people behave, in their best and worst moments, when they think no one is watching.”

Eslami signed with Mollie Glick, an agent with Foundry + Media, after she queried ones who represented her favorite authors. “Bone Worship,” seven years in the making, was picked up by Pegasus Books, a New York publishing house.

Jessica Case, Eslami’s editor at Pegasus books, said, “Elizabeth is a fresh voice in contemporary fiction and we have been absolutely thrilled with the reception for her debut novel, “Bone Worship.” Jasmine’s voice is at once prickly and sarcastic yet warm and endearing. It is impossible not to fall in love with her and share in her wonderment and frustration with her father and his mysterious past.”

Expected to do her own promotion, Eslami’s year has included a book tour and public speaking schedule, radio interviews, production of a book trailer and Web site as well as continuance of her blog and an active presence on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Red Room and Goodreads.

Timothy Hutton, bookworm and star of TV drama “Leverage,” tweeted Eslami’s Portland, Ore., book launch. She continues to contribute to Web sites who nurture writers and have well-written content like “The Nervous Breakdown,” “The Millions” and “Matador.”

Currently residing in Connecticut, Eslami’s plans are to stay in place the next five years while writing, reading and hopefully teaching. She is working on a collection of short stories and a second novel. On the calendar for 2012 is a trip to Iran.