Le penseur de la Porte de l'Enfer (Rodin museum), 1890. Wikicommons/ Jean-Piere Dalbera. Some rights reserved.Firstly: Doozakhrafat is a book by Sorush Pakzad, for which I have written a foreword, in the hope of sharing in the joy of those reading its beautiful stories. I recommend this book; it is unmatched and makes you snort with laughter. I have written in the foreword: “it had been a while since I laughed so much. To be honest, since reading Farrokh Saramad in the 80s and Ambrose Bierce in the 90s, I had not encountered a writing that could make me laugh in private. Now this is exactly what Sorush offers in Doozakhrafat and somehow it feels that he has obtained God’s permission for the jokes. It is as if he has been one of the staff in God’s kingdom, sitting there like the Thinker sculpture, his hands under his chin, observing the daily life of God and his buddies in heaven, and suddenly bursting into laughter. “What’s so funny yo?” asks Michael. “Nothing really,” replies Sorush, “I just remembered something.”
I recommend this book, as it is one of a kind, unique, pleasant, and insightful. Sometimes, I feel a close attachment to it and sometimes I wonder how the book’s moments of political satire, which are quite limited, do not shorten the life of its humor by giving it an inevitable expiry date. But it offers a global perspective and at the same time shows traces of an Iranian culture. More precisely, it is as if this dude has traveled beyond our galaxy and looked back upon our world and written about it (quite masterfully, I should add) from a distant perspective.
The jokes are centered on God and his creation, and Satan’s warnings - “hey man, stop this shit”. God, being a stubborn jerk, ignores all common sense. There is Khidr, who has gone missing, and Abraham, who plays stupid pranks on his son, and Joseph, with his tight jeans and funky hairstyle, and Jesus and his Mommy, and Moses with his demands and commandments, and Israfil, making way too much noise, and Michael, with his Isfahani accent, and Azrael, who has totally forgotten about Iran’s Supreme Leader, and of course Gabriel, who like it or not, is God’s favorite.
