Azar Nafisi's dazzling memoir lends an insightful view of modern Iran. Iranian born Nafisi, who returned to Tehran in 1979 to teach literature, finds freedom from the Cultural Revolution's oppression in the pages of Western classics. The Revolution may seem an odd backdrop for literary ruminations about Henry James and Jane Austen, but in Nafisi's hands the two compliment each other. Whether she is teaching in a university or to a small, clandestine reading group, Nafisi uses the novelists' themes to highlight the repression of the regime and her own, personal rebellions against it. Although the literary analyses may become tedious for some, bibliophiles (and anyone who has ever been in a reading group) will delight in Nafisi's reflections.  (MDE74, $15.00)