I'm at the end of chapter 11 (in part 2)

Agree that the airport scene was confusing, especially as she was looking at the girl who was alone (I'm still not sure who that girl is - thought it was her, but then at one point she writes,"I try not to see her, not to bump into her...").

I made a note that the point of view in this book is confusing because of inconsistencies like this; Sometimes she talks directly to us readers, other times she doesn't. And - a particularly frustrating point - she continues to insert bits of what seem to be dialog without ANY punctuation (but then other times, she does include punctuation in dialog).

I highlighted this particular bit, three paragraphs into Chapt 3 (mid-way through the para): ".. This seemed obvious to him. But then I had difficulty choosing his counterpoint--should I choose Steinbeck, Farrell or Dos Passos? You didn't think any of them would measure up to Fitzgerald did you? ..." Is she talking to the reader there at the end? Or the person she is having the conversation with (the oh-so-clear, "him" aka "Dr. A" who - I think she is interviewing with). Or is HE talking to HER? Seriously, WTF!?! If I wrote like this for my clients they would FIRE ME! Good writing doesn't need to be read twice (or more) to figure out wtf is going on.

I started getting a little excited that the book seemed to be flowing a bit more like a story at the beginning of Part 2. We were at the point in time when the author returned to Iran, and the first few chapters seemed to be the story of how she began teaching in Iran after studying in the US. But the further in I got, the more I became confused. There is some good stuff about the political climate and some historical stuff, but here again, the POV shifts and timeline jumping make it difficult to digest. There are great little gems throughout this book, but overall, I am still finding it a tad frustrating that the structure is so RANDOM!!

Why don't I hang out here at the start of chapter 12 and wait for you. (I can get back to Amber Spyglass for a bit.) This is SOO odd. You are usually waay ahead of me...