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I've now read this book three times. And every single time I remember something I'd forgotten or I get something new out of it. I read it this time because I wanted to read it's sequel and felt like a brush-up of book one would certainly be in order.
This book is so good, guys. It is one of the best (if not THE best) graphic novels I've ever read. Marjane Satrapi's voice is so strong and important, and down to earth and hysterically funny. She relates the goings-on in a very tumultuous time in history so well and with such craft. I loved learning about the Islamic Revolution through her words and pictures and it really opened my eyes to the terror and the hardships that Iranian people went through, and STILL go through today.
And I loved learning about the political drama, the tensions, the religious uprising, what really happened during the war with Iraq, but never for one second did I feel like I was reading a dry political memoir. Because this isn't a political memoir. It is the memoir of a young girl. Who just so happened to grow up differently from how I did. Though her stories often are centered around what was going on in her world at the time, more was devoted to the everyday life in Marji's world. What color nail polish to buy, what kind of music to listen to, the excitement she felt every time her grandmother came to visit. I loved the bits of history and dark, murky, drama that went along with it, but above all, this is the memoir of a girl growing up in Iran. In a country she absolutely loved, who was lucky enough to have parents who raised her to be exactly who and what she is, who loved her for being unique and special and unlike everybody else. This is a girl who snuck out to buy Iron Maiden cassettes on the black market, who secretly despised wearing a veil, and who told a heartbreaking tale of an uncle she loved to pieces. It is in turns heartbreaking and hilarious and her voice resonates off the page.
My favorite part about the story was Marjane's own voice. This volume is about her childhood in Iran and ends with her boarding a plane to Austria (her parents sent her there for school to protect her) and I loved that she wrote in the voice of a young girl. I know exactly what type of child Marjane was through her telling of stories, and I know exactly what kind of people her parents were, and I loved reading the stories she tells about every day life, from family dramas, to teasing friends on the playground, to that eventual loss of innocence when she discovers what her world has become. It is no surprise that she grew up to be an artist and a writer because it is evident early on that Marjane has a vivid imagination, one that is kindled and fostered by parents who did not always fit in with the fundamentalists who surrounded them.
I actually decided to pick this book up because I was reading another book, a classic, that tells a fictional apocalyptic tale of a future where women are basically enslaved and treated as less than human. And I was feeling quite disillusioned by the whole thing.
Even though that book is obviously fiction, it made me think. Because it describes an America I think all Americans can agree on as being a living hell. And it seems extreme. But it made me think about all the places in the world where people actually live lives that are not so very different from the lives portrayed in that book. And Iran is one of those places and Marjane and her family are people who lived through hell and survived. And where the former novel was bleak and disturbing and dramatic and portrayed women as weaklings, I loved reading about all the different ways that Marjane and her family and friends protested the system in which they live and all they ways they showed strength. It was an inspiring read, and one I will remember far better than the fictional tale. It showed the cold hard truths of being a woman growing up and living in a totally patriarchal society. And was NOT so far off from the fictional world created by Margaret Atwood in the eighties.
And can I just say that providing a graphic novel as the vehicle in which to tell her tale was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. My sister actually read this book in tenth grade as a part of her English class, and I know that her teacher was really shamed by other teachers and parents for encouraging her students to read a graphic novel instead of reading prose. They said that she was encouraging laziness in the students, that an English teacher should be encouraging more challenging reads in high school than those offered by this book. And I totally disagree. My sister LOVED this book. And she learned SO MUCH about how people lived back then and what they go through and the type of world that is so different from the one she grew up in. Things she would never have learned had she been forced to read a traditionally published book about Iran. She loved it so much that when I bought her the complete Persepolis a few years later, she was so excited she read the whole thing that night. She still talks about this book and how it changed her way of thinking. AND THAT! THAT! is what books do. It is part of their magic. And so kudos to that tenth grade English teacher who took a step out of the box and assigned this book, knowing the potential backlash that would ensue. She singe-handedly may have influenced a whole classroom to think outside themselves and the worlds they grew up in.
And so I highly recommend this lovely book. It is a quick read and one that will stick with you, I promise. And I dare you not to fall in love with little Marji as a child. I dare you.
4 stars.
This book is so good, guys. It is one of the best (if not THE best) graphic novels I've ever read. Marjane Satrapi's voice is so strong and important, and down to earth and hysterically funny. She relates the goings-on in a very tumultuous time in history so well and with such craft. I loved learning about the Islamic Revolution through her words and pictures and it really opened my eyes to the terror and the hardships that Iranian people went through, and STILL go through today.
And I loved learning about the political drama, the tensions, the religious uprising, what really happened during the war with Iraq, but never for one second did I feel like I was reading a dry political memoir. Because this isn't a political memoir. It is the memoir of a young girl. Who just so happened to grow up differently from how I did. Though her stories often are centered around what was going on in her world at the time, more was devoted to the everyday life in Marji's world. What color nail polish to buy, what kind of music to listen to, the excitement she felt every time her grandmother came to visit. I loved the bits of history and dark, murky, drama that went along with it, but above all, this is the memoir of a girl growing up in Iran. In a country she absolutely loved, who was lucky enough to have parents who raised her to be exactly who and what she is, who loved her for being unique and special and unlike everybody else. This is a girl who snuck out to buy Iron Maiden cassettes on the black market, who secretly despised wearing a veil, and who told a heartbreaking tale of an uncle she loved to pieces. It is in turns heartbreaking and hilarious and her voice resonates off the page.
My favorite part about the story was Marjane's own voice. This volume is about her childhood in Iran and ends with her boarding a plane to Austria (her parents sent her there for school to protect her) and I loved that she wrote in the voice of a young girl. I know exactly what type of child Marjane was through her telling of stories, and I know exactly what kind of people her parents were, and I loved reading the stories she tells about every day life, from family dramas, to teasing friends on the playground, to that eventual loss of innocence when she discovers what her world has become. It is no surprise that she grew up to be an artist and a writer because it is evident early on that Marjane has a vivid imagination, one that is kindled and fostered by parents who did not always fit in with the fundamentalists who surrounded them.
I actually decided to pick this book up because I was reading another book, a classic, that tells a fictional apocalyptic tale of a future where women are basically enslaved and treated as less than human. And I was feeling quite disillusioned by the whole thing.
Even though that book is obviously fiction, it made me think. Because it describes an America I think all Americans can agree on as being a living hell. And it seems extreme. But it made me think about all the places in the world where people actually live lives that are not so very different from the lives portrayed in that book. And Iran is one of those places and Marjane and her family are people who lived through hell and survived. And where the former novel was bleak and disturbing and dramatic and portrayed women as weaklings, I loved reading about all the different ways that Marjane and her family and friends protested the system in which they live and all they ways they showed strength. It was an inspiring read, and one I will remember far better than the fictional tale. It showed the cold hard truths of being a woman growing up and living in a totally patriarchal society. And was NOT so far off from the fictional world created by Margaret Atwood in the eighties.
And can I just say that providing a graphic novel as the vehicle in which to tell her tale was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. My sister actually read this book in tenth grade as a part of her English class, and I know that her teacher was really shamed by other teachers and parents for encouraging her students to read a graphic novel instead of reading prose. They said that she was encouraging laziness in the students, that an English teacher should be encouraging more challenging reads in high school than those offered by this book. And I totally disagree. My sister LOVED this book. And she learned SO MUCH about how people lived back then and what they go through and the type of world that is so different from the one she grew up in. Things she would never have learned had she been forced to read a traditionally published book about Iran. She loved it so much that when I bought her the complete Persepolis a few years later, she was so excited she read the whole thing that night. She still talks about this book and how it changed her way of thinking. AND THAT! THAT! is what books do. It is part of their magic. And so kudos to that tenth grade English teacher who took a step out of the box and assigned this book, knowing the potential backlash that would ensue. She singe-handedly may have influenced a whole classroom to think outside themselves and the worlds they grew up in.
And so I highly recommend this lovely book. It is a quick read and one that will stick with you, I promise. And I dare you not to fall in love with little Marji as a child. I dare you.
4 stars.
