Seasonal reading tips

BY LAURA FRIEL

Anne Cadwallader, author of Holy Cross, the untold story, with Holy Cross priests Fathers Gary and Aidan

I imagine that reading for pleasure and leisure is a random occupation in which novels and other narratives are chosen on their own merit. Yet last year, a number of themes in my choice of reading began to emerge, not surprisingly a pre-occupation with the Middle East and the current debates around al Qaeda but also the experiences of women, whether in Tehran or Ardoyne. Ideology and the ideas in which people shape their lives and choices also figured prominently. I hope these pencil sketches of what's on offer help you choose something for yourself or a friend over Christmas and the New Year.

Snow

Forget Frosty the Snowman; Orhan Pamuk's novel, Snow‚ is more bleak-midwinter than any seasonal wonderland. Set in a small town in northeastern Turkey, Pamuk describes a politically and ideologically divided community in which there are no easy answers or clear ways forward. The main protagonist, an obscure poet and part time journalist, returns as a minor celebrity to his hometown and sets about wooing the girl he left behind. But this is not a love story.

On the tenuous pretence of writing an article for an Istanbul newspaper, the poet Ka explores the contending political ideologies and delves into the lives of their advocates. In the crazy, often violent, almost slapstick world that emerges, Western liberalism, secular Marxism and religious fundamentalism compete with each other as the town becomes increasingly cut off from the outside world in a blizzard of snow and insanity.

It's a story to chill you to the bone and although Pamuk refuses to give us any answers, his novel does provide a vehicle in which to ponder the questions. Snow is more loosely written than the author's more famous and beautifully constructed My name is red‚ and is better for it. It's a story without heroes and without endings that explores the tensions between competing ideologies without succumbing to the platitude of east and west. And throughout it all you can feel the icy winds and frozen earth.

• Snow‚ by Orhan Pamuk is published by Faber and Faber, priced £12.99.

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Reading Lolita in Tehran‚ by Azar Nafisi is not a novel. It's an account of the early days of the Iranian Revolution, its subversion by religious fundamentalism and the impact of Khomeini's regime on a small group of women studying western literature at the University of Tehran. It isn't long before the reading group is forced underground to study in secret, hiding from both the university and often their families.

Nafisi's account describes the descent into invisibility imposed on Iranian women by the fundamentalist regime. Through the critical exploration of novels like Nabokov's Lolita, the reading group struggles to find a voice to describe their own experiences as they become increasingly enmeshed inside someone else's political fantasy.

"Whoever we were — and it was not really important what religion we belonged to, whether we wished to wear the veil or not, whether we observed certain religious norms or not — we had become the figment of someone else's dreams," writes Nafisi.

As individual resistance to the regime becomes increasingly impossible, Nafisi describes the psychological consequences of compliance. She explores the relationship between the oppressor and oppressed with reference to Nabokov's Invitation to a beheading. Writing when the promise of the Soviets had collapsed into Stalinism, Nabokov provides a vision of power and illusion that lends itself to the predicament of Nafisi's reading group.

The group explores, among others, Jane Austen, F Scott Fitzgerald and Henry James, using the novels to identify their own experiences through consideration of the characters and plots in the stories they are reading. It's an amazing and tragic journey into oblivion. Nafisi offers us a far from perfect narrative but that really doesn't matter. Through her writings and pre-occupations, the reader gets that rare glimpse into the experience of women behind the veil and the hypocrisy of the regime that imposes it.

• Reading Lolita in Tehran‚ by Azar Nafisi is published by Fourth Estate at £7.99.

Al Qaeda, the true story of radical Islam

Al Qaeda, the true story of radical Islam‚ by Jason Burke, is a difficult read because there's a lot of detail to take in all at once but it's worth the effort. Burke begins by asking the question, what is al Qaeda? And if by al Qaeda you are referring to an organised international network headed by Osama bin Laden, then "the good news is that this al Qaeda does not exist", says Burke.

Anyone who watched Channel 4's recent television documentary, The power of nightmares‚ will have already gained an insight into Burke's study, which attempts to identify the facts behind the illusions currently being peddled by the US administration and other western powers.

Burke traces the rise of radical Islam in its different forms and the progression towards fundamentalism. Interestingly, Burke argues that the defining aspect of extreme Islamic fundamentalism is that it has been largely rejected within the Islamic world.

September 11 must be understood, he believes, not as the pinnacle achievement of a movement gaining momentum but the action of an increasingly isolated group forced to replace building a meaningful political movement with international notoriety.

Burke points out that after 9/11 and America's announcement of a 'war on terror'‚ many indigenous grievances were re-defined as 'linked' to al Qaeda by governments keen to attach US support and money to existing conflicts with armed insurgents threatening their regimes.

But Burke also explores the links between regional groups and bin Laden's vision of global jihad. The alliances appear to be far more pragmatic than ideological and informal rather than organised or centrally controlled. Burke argues that it is this informality that poses the greatest challenge and the fact that al Qaeda doesn't exist in any formal sense makes it more, not less, difficult to defeat.

• Al Qaeda, the true story of radical Islam‚ by Jason Burke, is published by Penguin at £7.99.

How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the world

Somewhere between the Second Coming and the fourth dimension is how Francis Wheen describes Tony Blair's notion of the Third Way in his hilarious and detailed study, How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World.

The laughs aren't as immediate as Michael Moore's journeys into the dangerously ridiculous but exposure of much of the nonsense that passes for economic and political theory in the contemporary world is more acute.

With glorious chapters from 'voodoo' economics, which deals with the right's adherence to the 'trickle down theory'; and mysticism in the marketplace; to debunking Homeopathy (come on now, it's water and sugar); to the insidious creep of creationist theories into the American education system, Wheen defends the old fashioned values of the enlightenment and empirical science.

Don't expect to agree with everything Wheen wheels out for inspection but it's a great read nevertheless and, if you are ever in need of confirmation that the lunatics are really running the asylum, then Wheen is your man.

• How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the world‚ by Francis Wheen, is published by Harper Perennial at £7.99.

Holy Cross, the untold story

Closer to home, Holy Cross, the untold story‚ is the kind of competent and carefully crafted account you would expect from Anne Cadwallader. Based on interviews with the main protagonists, Cadwallader places the events around the loyalist blockade of Holy Cross Catholic girls' school in their historic and social context.

And if you imagine that the oppression of women is something that only happens behind the veil, then the story of Holy Cross is a wake-up call. Here, the language of race hatred indulged in by the loyalist mob was often couched in sexualised abuse and sexist stereotypes. And if that wasn't enough, the media pursued the notion of 'unfit' mothers as a means of understanding events.

In her detailed narrative, Cadwallader peels away the illusions of 'alternative routes', Catholic 'expansionism' and 'republican plots' and exposes the grim reality of sectarian hatred which fuelled the unionist blockade. She also takes a long hard look at the wider civic society, from the police to politicians, whose action or lack of action added to the unfolding tragedy.

But despite their ordeal, the children of Holy Cross and their families, all emerge as stronger and more confident about the choices they made. "We had already walked the Crumlin Road in June and the loyalists had laughed at us. They had shouted at us from their cars, pointing and hurling insults. Nobody had the right to humiliate us like that," says a mother.

• Holy Cross, the untold story‚ by Anne Cadwallader, is published by the Brehon Press at £12.99.