With the "Hidden Meaning of Mass Communications," Exiled Iranian diplomat-writer Fereydoun Hoveyda has come out with a refreshing and most enticing undertaking on the Cinema and other stirring subjects affecting contemporary society. Hoveyda is a former contributor and renowned critic of the Cahiers du Cinéma, a French magazine that has highly influenced contemporary cinematic theory and technique. According to Hoveyda who has always refused to be a censor, "criticism can achieve responsible objectives by shifting in time, by taking place not at the beginning but towards the end of a film's run. It is not a matter of predetermining the viewer's choice, but of engaging in a dialogue with him about the work he has seen."

In this new book, Hoveyda's many delightful anecdotes, observations and memories are enticing, and remarkably his revealing relationship between film and dreams are new and very stimulating ideas. Do you know that when you sleep, you become a cinematographer, directing and inventing your mental images? Thus, it could be that exiled Hoveyda presently lives in one land but may well dream in another! That's a wonderful idea and there are many more in the book. For example, "light" being a character in a film! The last chapter too is of high interest for it deals on how the computer age has changed film, art, literature and our entire way of life. We are no longer in the age of the Cahiers du Cinéma. Much research went into this very personal and useful work, surely with the advent of wonderful new techniques it may well turn into an e-book made available to all, with all the amazing photographs included.

Guy Revol Paris - October 17, 2000

Don't seek any academic insights from this book. This is a piece of pure entertainment, full of memories and anecdotes that can brighten up a hundred dinner tables over the years. Hoveyda was a founder of France's snootiest film review, the Cahiers du Cinema, but writes with the ease and wit of a free spirit. While recalling his friendship with many of the innovative film-makers of the last century, Hoveyda also debunks some of the myths about the New Wave and independent cinema. A READER IN LONDON

This is a charming collection of a lifetime of thoughts about cinema, literature and TV by one of the founders of the famous Cahier de Cinema. Hoveyda was a film critic for years, and tells personal anecdotes about Truffaut, Godard, Rosselini, etc.

Some of the more whimsical thoughts are: cinema did not follow literature! It actually came before books, in the form of dreams in which we use cinematic techniques.

And Sheherezade, in 1001 Nights, provided the "late show" (minus the TV set) for her insomniac husband, who had no opportunity to dream.

Ambassador Fereydoun Hoveyda addresses the core of the problems facing Iran, both advertently, and inadvertently.

For a more detailed review of this book and a point for point critic of some of the false premises that exist in this book, please visit amiran dot com (forward-slash)/ sphinx

Using this book and its predecessor published a couple of years ago, I try and show the reader, using the authors very own words, their motives, their mistaken assumptions, and it's inevitable consequences.

We, the young generation of Iranian's, had to learn the hard way.

This concise, clear, original book is a crystallization of decades of thought by Hoveyda, former Iranian Ambassador to the UN and now an American citizen. Having grown up in both the Middle East (Iran, Lebanon) and the West, he brings both an insiders and an outsiders point of view.
Assuming we are all deeply influenced by our history, and particularly our mythologies, Hoveyda elucidates Iranian attitudes and actions by examining both Islamic and 0pre-Islamic myths which are transmitted to every Iranian child. He contrasts these with Western myths: In our (Oedipal) mythology, the son kills the father; Iran it is reversed: the father kills the son. Hoveyda uses these myths to explain aspects of the Iranian revolution that might seem puzzling to us.
Particularly interesting is the Islamic (and pre-Islamic) concept of "ketman," or doubletalk, in which the believer is encouraged to deceive the infidel-i.e., to tell him what he wants to hear.
This book deserves a wide readership and should be reprinted at a more affordable price.

This book by a former Iranian diplomat deserves far more attention than it has received. It offers a very readable survey of the latest literature available on Islamic fundamentalism in a number of languages. Hoveyda draws heavily on the writings of several European experts on Islamic fundamentalism including Olivier Roy, Maxime Rodinson, Amir Taheri, Bruno Etienne and Gilles Kepel, whose works may not be readily available to the American public. Hoveyda's conclusions may seem pessimistic. Roy and others have shown that Islamic fundamentalism is on the decline and, a decade from now, would not represent a major political force in any important Islamic country. This, however, does not mean that " the beast" of fanaticism could not raise its head here and there at some future point. A READER IN LONDON

The Broken Crescent: The Threat of Militant Islamic Fundamentalism By Fereydoun Hoveyda, Praeger.

This book is of great importance to all those who want to comprehend the roots and the scope of militant Islamic fundamentalism in our present time. The author dissipates the confusing clouds that hang over most of the texts published about Islam by so-called experts. For one thing, he rejects the gobble-de-gook wooden style of most academic writings. It is easily readable and understandable.

The book reminds us that Islam as one of the of the major world religions, turned "fundamentalist" around the 12th century and has remained so up to now. Actually simple fundamentalism is found in almost all religions and "returning to the roots" of a religion does not imply militancy. The militants and the "official" clerics of Egypt's el-Azhar or Tunisia's Zeituni Islamic universities (for instance) share many current official interpretations of the Quran. But the latter do not invite the faithful to kill or commit other criminal acts as the former do.

Before the 12th century, the Muslim world was a relatively open society allowing speculative thinking and welcoming the classical cultures of antiquity, Greek, Persian, Indian, etc. Muslim scholars such as and scientists such as Avicenna or Averroes, flourished and produced an important body of work.

The triumph of fundamentalism stopped this and marked the beginning of a steady decline. Muslims rejected the science and philosophy they had developed. Their past work and knowledge was picked up by western universities and lead to the Renaissance in Europe. The author affirms that if fundamentalists had not won in the 12th century, the scientific and industrial revolutions would have happened in the Muslim world! He dubs as "unbearable" the cost of fundamentalism and its terrorist tactics is even more harmful. The leaders of this brand of super-fundamentalism, affirms the author, want to revive the Jihad in order to bring the whole world under their banner.

The book brushes up the history of militant fundamentalism and its revival by Khomeini after his seizure of power in Iran. In a way, American and other Western policies helped to achieve the success of militant fundamentalists in Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Hoveyda's narratives contain a wealth of information. He demonstrates with clarity that militant Islamic fundamentalism is essentially a political movement and not a religious one.

Although Islamic fundamentalism may pose a threat to the West, it will be more "lethal" to the Muslim world itself. Moreover, Islamic fundamentalism cannot answer the needs of Muslim countries in the coming century. On the contrary, it will push them further back. In order to prevent total decay, Muslim intellectuals should undertake a formidable cultural effort and reject old fundamentalist interpretations... Hoveyda's work is a must read for all those interested in the question. As reviewer said: "Hoveyda has written the most sensible analytic book about the significance and the role of militant Islamic fundamentalism to appear so far." Indeed, this book is revealing... Guy Revol ++

The author of this angry little book worked as a diplomat for the Shah of Iran for almost 30 years. His older brother served as the Shah's Prime Minister for 13 years.
And yet the book is a vitriolic attack against the Shah.
The reason?
In the last months of his reign the Shah decided to imprison the author's brother, Amir-Abbas Hoveyda,in a forlorn bid to silence the regime's violent critics.
Amir Abbas Hoveyda was made a scapegoat.
When the Shah left Iran with his wife and family he abandoned Amir-Abbas to the bloodthirsty mullahs who soon seized power. That was a cowardly act on the part of the Shah. The mulahs murdered Amir-Abbas Hoveyda along with tens of thousands of other Iranians who fell into their hands.
Fereydoun Hoveyda cannot forget, or forgive, the betrayal of his borther. And that is understandable.
The problem is that Fereydoun Hoveyda's emotions prevented him from writing a balanced book. His vilification of the Shah can only absolve, albeit only partly, the mullahs who actually murdered Amir-Abbas.
Had the title of the book been " Settling Scores with the Shah", I would have had no obejction.
The Shah was certainly no angel. But nor was he the demon that Fereydoun Hoveyda pretends.
For a more balanced biography of the Shah, and a less emotional account of Amir-Abbas Hoveyda's tragic fate, you could read William Shawcross's " The Shah's Last Ride" which remains a good example of the Western art of biography.
For a more initimate, and Iranian, view you could read Amir Taheri's " The Unknown Life of the Shah". Taheri knew the Shah well and was also regarded as a personal friend of Amir-Abbas Hoveyda.He has thus been able to remain fair to both men, although his bias, not to say hatred, of the Islamists colours his broader political judgment. A READER IN RICHMOND, SURREY, UK