Tehrangeles

January 1, 2024

Khakpour (Brown Album) returns to fiction with a story inspired by Shahs of Sunset and Little Women. The wealthy Iranian American Milani family boasts a microwaveable-snack empire, a mansion in Los Angeles, and four daughters. They're on the verge of landing a reality TV show, which might reveal their secrets but may also bring them closer together. Prepub Alert.

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Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 18, 2024
Khakpour’s wry latest (following the essay collection Brown Album) introduces the Milanis, a wealthy Persian family living in Los Angeles. The Milanis have courted fame ever since patriarch Al struck frozen food gold in the 1980s with Pizzabomme (“like Cinnabon but Pizza”), which led to a viral TV commercial. Their celebrity is taken to new heights when 18-year-old Roxanna, the self-assured second of four daughters, secures a deal for a reality show in early 2020. The news invites mixed reactions in the family—Al is thrilled for the publicity, but his depressive wife, Homa, is ambivalent. Violet, the oldest daughter and a model, goes along with the show, while shrewd third daughter Mina worries her newfound queerness may be exposed. Haylee, the youngest at “fourteen going on twenty-four,” sees the show as her big break. Escalating events—first the fear of war with Iran after the U.S. assassinates an Iranian general and then the Covid-19 pandemic­­—threaten to torpedo the show, however. During lockdown, the Milanis cope with their stress by logging on to social media, using drugs, or pretending everything is fine, and stick largely to their own corners of the mansion. Khakpour’s commitment to giving equal weight to each character means that the narrative structure occasionally feels diffuse. For the most part, though, she provides a vibrant sense of place and an indelible family portrait. This has plenty of heart. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House.

April 1, 2024
A wealthy Iranian family in Los Angeles has a reality TV deal--and their inner lives--turned upside down by Covid-19. The four Milani sisters are ready for their moment in the spotlight. They've grown up rich, thanks to their dad's booming snack empire--he's the inventor of the "Pizzabomme"--but now they have a chance for stratospheric fame in the form of a reality show. Two of the sisters already know they have "Main Character" energy: Roxana, the daddy's girl and ambitious influencer, and the youngest sister, Haylee, who's obsessed with wellness culture and clean eating. On the other side of the family spectrum is Violet, the sensitive eldest, who has built a career as a model, and the chronically ill and "practical" Mina, who is more interested in anonymous online stan culture than her own face on TV. The four young women live in a sprawling estate with their mismatched parents--their slick snack-baron dad and gloomy mother--and (obvs) the household help. But as the six members of the Milani family are about to begin filming a Kardashian-style TV show, the pandemic forces them to confront the variety of secrets and hidden longings they've all been harboring for too long. Khakpour, who was born in Tehran and raised in Los Angeles, has written a kind of hyperreal neon inversion of Little Women, if the March girls had to deal with hashtags, eating disorders, microaggressions, and group chats. Khakpour aims for, and mostly hits, the sweet spot of satire, where critique blurs at the edges with sympathy for the hot messes that are the Milanis. It's not easy, after all, to figure out your identity, especially when the world is watching. Iranian and American cultures collide in a shower of glitter and tears in this sendup of the SoCal elite.

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June 14, 2024

Khakpour (Brown Album) takes readers on a trip to the wild world of the rich and Persian in this story of heiress sisters Violet, Roxanna, Mina, and Haylee Milani, who are navigating their forthcoming reality TV show debut and the pandemic that puts their climb to stardom on pause. The Milani sisters live in a huge Los Angeles mansion with their father, a snack food innovator, and their mother; both parents left Iran during the Revolution. The Milani clan are rich but largely miserable. Various members of the family deal with depression, drug use, and eating disorders, getting canceled online, conspiracy theories, and more. At times, the novel is downright tragic. But whether it's Khakpour's biting wit as she deftly comments on social media influencers or an amusing scene with a pet psychic and the family's Persian cat, the book is also funny and compelling. VERDICT While some may struggle with enjoying a novel set in the depths of the pandemic in 2020, readers who enjoy the satire of Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, and those who consider the Kardashians a guilty pleasure won't be able to put this book down.--Jenny Kobiela-Mondor

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 6, 2024
Tehrangeles, a Los Angeles neighborhood, is home to well-off Persians and Iranians, including the exceedingly wealthy Milani family. Ali and his wife, Homa, immigrated from Iran and built an empire with microwaveable snacks. Now they're raising four daughters in a mansion and are on the brink of having their very own reality TV show. Violet, the oldest daughter, is a model with a sugar addiction. Roxanna, who has been passing for Italian, is the impetus behind the show. Mina is sexually ambiguous and secretly obsessed with K-pop. Haylee, the only blond in the bunch, is consumed with her body image and MAGA politics. Pari, the family's Persian cat, is seeing a pet psychic. Just as the TV show is about to launch, COVID-19 hits and the world comes to a stop. The story is told from alternating viewpoints, and novelist, memoirist, and essayist Khakpour's prose is smart, sassy, and filled with pop culture references. Within their Kardashian vibe, the Milanis search for fame, fortune, and identity in a world filled with money, drugs, social media, and ties to the past. Fans of shrewd and funny pop-culture satire and reality TV will consume this with delight.

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