Barry Anderson's book is well-structured, well-written, and well-observed. Anderson takes you with him through the streets of Iran during the last month's of the Shah, tracing his path as an American in Iran working for Lockheed. You accompany Anderson in his early walks through Tehran, as he first discovers the smells, tastes, traffic tangles and the Iranians who, without any introduction, share their food, jokes, and humanity with the American stranger.

The text continually inserts you between Anderson and his discoveries, the interface between Anderson and the family sacrificing their goat for a housewarming dinner, the fleshy melons purchased on the street, the cab drivers reinventing driving against roiling traffic, and always the cultural refracting between human interactions.

Anderson's company role is as an HR manager, as he herds his fellow employees through weekend getaways, in and out of Iran's airports, hotels and even morgues. As the Shah's own escape from the country nears, Anderson attends to all reports, and leads the employee's families through the rioting streets to make a play for departing planes.

Anderson has included many well-photographed black and white images of 1970's Iran. They help round out the story, and articulate the time, place, and of course, context.

I really enjoyed reading this book about the days just preceeding the fall of the Shah. The author makes you feel you were there experiencing the contradictions, emotions, and theology of the day. You also understand the difficulties many Iranians were experiencing who recognized that a new intolerant religious regime would change everything. The author truly shows you the sights of the country, including ancient Persepolis, and the various fascinating cuisines offered throughout. This book gives one a better understanding of Persian culture and the myriad differences of East vs. West. Fascinating and highly readable.

I just finished reading this excellent book. I worked in Asia for a major US company during 1981. Much of what Anderson described was the big corporation approach to "expat" activity at that time. In some places that approach worked, in others it merely made ugly Americans of the expats. The US companies were incapable of differentiation between the two results.

The book is also excellent testimony to the vast cultural gap between Iranians and Americans. That gap is unlikely to be bridged any time soon.

The book supports my belief that any hope for a future of world peace will come from an accumulation of individual, one-on-one contacts between first-world and third-world people rather than via the efforts of governments, corporations or other large organizations.

Boy, does this book ever graphically bring back memories of that era in Iranian history. I'm the "Mark" in Barry's book. This is a very good read and will assist you in understanding where Iran is today.

Highly recommend this book written by someone who was there during the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970's.

Mark Sanderson

A great book. Easy to read, interesting, funny, and sometimes scary.

The author makes you feel like you were there; the sights, smells, and people come to life with his vivid descriptions. His daily life, the people he meets, and his touring excursions give the reader a good feel for what Iran was like in the late 1970's just before the fall of the Shah of Iran. The tension and problems of being there during a fundamentalist Islamic revolution is described well.

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in feeling a first hand experience of Iran's culture and people during a unique time in history that most of us still remember.