The Stationery Shop of Tehran

The chapter is a letter from Bahman to Roya, which she apparently never receives. We learn that he waited for her on Baharestan, not Sepah Square, and that he believes that Roya deliberately jilted him. He refers to a letter from Roya in which she stated that she could not marry into a family with a mental illness such as his mother’s.

He tells her that his father has died. Although many viewed his father as weak for allowing himself to be dominated by his mother, Bahman is filled with respect for his courage and unwavering loyalty in defying social conventions for love. He compares the notions of love and marriage in romantic literature and American films to those in conventional Iranian society. His marriage to Shahla is loveless. They are expecting a child, and he is surprised that his mother is not more excited.

He describes his hopelessness at the political state of his country and his resigned acceptance of his new career as “a cog in the wheels of capitalism” (180). Looking back at his youthful idealism, he states that he feels bereft rather than embarrassed. With regard to Roya’s new life in America, he is both awestruck, recalling all his beloved American cultural icons, and somewhat embittered, recalling the CIA’s involvement in the coup.

Roya is feeling nostalgic for Persian cookery. One evening, on a double date with Walter, Jack, and Zari, she offers to cook for them all so as to introduce the men to the culinary traditions of her homeland. Jack declines, convinced that Iranian culinary traditions do not extend beyond kebabs, but Walter readily agrees.

Roya buys ingredients in a delicatessen belonging to the uncle of an Iranian classmate. As she enters the shop, the familiar smells fill her with nostalgia. When Walter arrives, Roya is struck by the different conventions surrounding hospitality and surprised when he wants to get actively involved in the cookery lesson. As Roya serves up the dishes and Walter enthusiastically tastes them, she finds herself falling in love with him.

Walter proposes to Roya and she accepts immediately, although she feels strangely disassociated from the scene. The couple plans to move to New England, as Walter has won a place at Boston University Law School. She is shocked at herself for accepting so rapidly, and reflects on how she condemned Bahman for abruptly and passively falling in with his mother’s plans for his life.

When she hears the news, Zari is hugely excited and states that this means that Roya has finished with Bahman once and for all. Roya’s parents fly to New England for the wedding. She is delighted to embrace them again but saddened at how much they have aged.

Zari marries Jack, but their parents cannot afford to fly over again. Jack is determined to make a living as a poet, and Roya worries about her sister’s financial security.

Patricia, Walter’s sister, comes to dinner. Roya prepares American food because Patricia has always left Persian cuisine untouched on her plate. Patricia, who has never disguised her dislike for Roya, challenges her hosts about the fact that they are still childless. Walter responds that Roya wishes to concentrate on her career for the time being. Patricia clearly disapproves and Roya reflects that she does not feel ready for motherhood. As a foreign woman, she finds it unexpectedly hard to find a laboratory post and eventually settles for a secretarial post. Walter is supportive but continues to ask whether she feels ready for a baby. Roya cannot forget Mrs. Aslan’s warning that “babies die” (205).