Drunkard Morning

From the suffering of endurance, likened to the morning after, Fataneh Haj Seyed Javadi, writing under the pen name Parvin, has crafted a story that has been reprinted more than fifty times to date and translated into Italian, Greek, and German. Sudabeh is a young, headstrong girl standing at the threshold of a life-changing decision. Her turbulent and emotional nature has made her parents worried about her impulsive and premature choice, especially since Sudabeh is a mirror image of her aunt, Mahbubeh, who long ago overturned her own life with a fiery decision. Now Mahbubeh sends a cold sigh toward the dust-covered frame of that old love, stirring up the ashes of forgetfulness so that Sudabeh may see the details of her storm-stricken love mixed with longing and disillusionment.

Mahbubeh is a rebellious beauty from an aristocratic family in the early years of Reza Shah Pahlavi’s reign. Her mischief and carelessness lead her into the snare of love for Rahim, a carpenter’s apprentice with a defiant spirit. Rahim’s free and untamed nature attracts Mahbubeh, who has only ever dealt with rigid, aristocratic men, and the young girl becomes so captivated by this new discovery beyond her privileged world that she closes her eyes to all the class differences and the behaviors that reveal Rahim and his family’s cultural and social shortcomings. This neglect and naïveté become a consuming calamity that turns Mahbubeh’s love and youth to ashes, plunging her into a whirlpool of hardship and misery. The story of this passionate love and Mahbubeh’s struggles to escape its burning grip is a cautionary tale for young girls who, joyful and careless, choose to dive headfirst into the abyss of an unknown love.