Not hard to see how this has become a classic of memoir- I think what is particularly jarring about this graphic novel is the level of political awareness that the author imbues her child self alongside the awareness of the gruesome events unfolding around her in her country and among her own family and friends. That kind of knowingness in a child narrator makes the horrors depicted somehow even more intense, at least for me

این اولین ریویوی فارسیه منه که البته ریویوی کامل نیس فقط این یه خطو فارسی میگم میرم
(((:اگه فک میکنین قبل انقلاب ایران سوئد بوده لطفا این کتابو از دست ندین
ترجمش تو نت هست فقط سرچ کنین دانلود کمیک پرسپولیس

Compact and concise, it is almost like a history lesson. Only I had never had one this unique. The comic relief works wonders. So do the emotional bits, and the best thing is that they never get melodramatic! Very factual and stays true to the emotions a child is capable of feeling when they get caught up in a whirlwind of such shitshow.

خیلی هنرمندانه‌س که همجین کمیکی بنویسی که غم‌انگیز بودنش خنده‌دار می‌شه:))

پرسپولیس، روایت انقلاب و بعد از انقلاب از دیدگاه مرجان ساتراپی، دختربچه‌ صادق و بامزه. کامل نیست، ولی خوب و قشنگه. تفاوت‌های فرهنگی، تعصب‌های مذهبی و پروپاگاندای جمهوری اسلامی رو به وضوح می‌شه دید. کلیدها، اون کلیدهای کذایی... :)

در زندگى با آدمهاى احمق زيادى سروكله خواهى زد ،اگر آنها به تو آسيب رساندند به حساب حماقتشان بگذار،چون هيچ چيز مانند كينه و انتقام جويى بد نيست! هميشه وقار خودت را حفظ كن و با خودت صادق باش...

The little red book cover to “Persepolis”, has been sketched in my mind for years...as clearly as a mental visual of the ‘Jack-in-the-box’ logo. ( I don’t eat there - but it’s pretty hard to not have an immediate visual memory of what their basic logo looks like).
I’ve no excuse for not reading this sooner. I don’t even have a resistance to worthy graphic memoirs. So - no excuse here! I never saw the film either.

I don’t think I need to share specifics about Marjane Satrapi’s autobiography in its artistic form....during the Islamic revolution when the Shah fled Iran in 1979 to escape. There are ‘thousands’ of reviews...

But I do have two things to share:
One is a personal experience. The other is a detail in this book I was curious about that sent me to google.

I was in Iran in 1974... “the good days” my local Iranian friends tell me. I actually ran into some trouble -( not an all out revolution), but it didn’t ‘feel’ good at the time in Tehran, - a couple of trouble incidents- but I often think about how lucky I was that I missed a bloody nightmare by 5 years. When I returned home and saw “Midnight Express”... I cant tell you how physically sick the movie made me. I was in a ‘close call’
situation in Iran, that could have landed me in one of those prisons ‘just’ by being with a guy who had drugs in his ‘pocket’ while crossing borders ( ‘while’ being searched). He quickly popped them in his mouth and swallowed them all. Being with him for the next 24 hours was another story!!!

The other - thing that interested me in this book ...
BESIDES ....the authors outstanding book achievement and her courage as a child....
is she mentioned an author she was obsessed with when she was 8 years old:
“Ali Ashraf Darvishian”. I had not heard of him. He was an Iranian story writer and Scholar. He also taught in poverty stricken villages. He studied Persian literature.
It looks like his books are out of print ( at least in America)... but he was an inspiring man who just died last year.

‘This’ book was first published in 2003.
The artwork is amazing —
The story more so!!!

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis, #1), Marjane Satrapi
Marjane Satrapi (born 22 November 1969) is an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, film director, and children's book author.

Persepolis is a graphic autobiography by Marjane Satrapi that depicts her childhood up to her early adult years in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. Persepolis reminds readers of the “precarity of survival” in political and social situations. The title Persepolis is a reference to the ancient capital of the Persian Empire, Persepolis. Originally published in French, the graphic novel has been translated to many other languages, including English, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Swedish, Finnish, Georgian, and others. As of 2018, it has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. Persepolis 1 was written in 2000 and Persepolis 2 was written in 2004.

Persepolis 1 begins by introducing, Marji, the ten-year-old protagonist. Set in 1980, the novel focuses on her experiences of growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Her story details the impact of war and religious extremism on Iranians, especially women. Belonging to an upper-middle class family, Marji has access to various educational materials, such as books and a radio, which expose her to Western political thought at a very young age. By discovering the ideas of numerous philosophers, Marji reflects on her class privilege and is eager to learn about her family's political background. This inquiry inspires her to participate in popular demonstrations against the Shah's regime in which people are asking for his exile as a way to safeguard their rights. Unfortunately, after the Shah's departure, Marji notices the rise of religious extremism in her society and is unhappy about it. Her uncle Anoosh's visit deepens her interest in politics when he tells her stories of being imprisoned as a communist revolutionary. His stories cause her to value ideas of equality and resistance.

After an abrupt family vacation to Europe, Marji returns to Iran where the government has declared war against Iraq. As her hometown of Tehran comes under attack, she finds safety in her basement, which doubles as a bomb shelter. Amidst the chaos of an ongoing war, her family secretly revolts against the new regime by having parties and consuming alcohol, which is prohibited in the country. Two years of war force Marji to explore her rebellious side by skipping classes, obsessing over boys, and visiting the black market that has grown as a result of the shortages caused by war and repression.

As the war intensifies, Marji rushes home one day to find that a long-range ballistic missile has hit her street. Traumatized by the sight of her friend's dead body, she expresses her anger against the Iranian political system. Her family begins to worry about her safety and decides to send her off to Austria for further study and to escape the war. The novel ends with her departure to Europe.

تاریخ خوانش: روز سی و یکم ماه اکتبر سال 2002 میلادی
رشته کتاب‌های «پرسپولیس» شامل چهار کتاب است، که تاکنون در فرانسه بیش از دویست هزار نسخه به فروش رفته‌ است. کتاب نخست از چهارگانه نخستین بار در سال 2000 میلادی در فرانسه منتشر شد. این رمان به شیوه ی اتوبیوگرافی بوده، و شخصیت اصلی رمان که راوی داستان نیز هستند، دختری ایرانی به نام «مرجان» است. مرجان دختری ست که در جریان انقلاب ایران، و بحران جنگ ایران و عراق، به تشویق خانواده، از کشور خارج شده، و به اتریش می‌روند. این کتاب‌ها روایت جنگ، و آوارگی، زندگی مهاجری در اروپا، بحران‌های مذهبی و سنتی جامعه ایران، و رخدادهای انقلاب و جنگ هستند، و تاریخ دهه ی پس از جنگ ایران و عراق را از دید ایشان بیان می‌کنند. ا. شربیانی

I thought this book was very sad, I felt sorry how Marjane had to grow up.

I'm going to link this to a friends review that can tell it better :)

Anne's Review

“In life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's because they're stupid. That will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance... Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.” – Advice to Marjane’s from her grandmother.

‘Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood’, the first volume, is the intimate memoir of a spirited young girl who had to grow up in the chaos of a society under a stiffly ruled regime which was going through phases of unrest in the form of oppression, revolution, horrors of war and religious rigidity. ‘Marjane Satrapi’ was born in 1969, in Rasht, Iran and the country was going through a momentous political transition during that time. Through bold and contrasting black and white inking and simple artwork the artist opens a window through which the reader can witness the daily life, it’s emotions, the history and terror from those days leading to and following the Islamic revolution as seen through Marjane’s own eyes.

‘Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood’ brings some of the key moments of Iran’s history during the 70s and 80s – like the oust of Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and subsequent morphing of the society towards orthodoxy through banning of secular education and imposing the veil, the devastating effects of war with Iraq, it's refugee situations – all beautifully intertwined with the personal moments from Marjane’s family with strong humor which makes the narrative more special for the reader.

Marjane was born into a well-to-do family and her parents were quite liberal in their outlook and this makes Marjene who is intelligent and outspoken as a child to have her own opinions and views on everything that is happening around her. At times her outspoken character and passion for freedom lands her in trouble at school and even with authorities. Being born into a well-to-do atmosphere helps her in bringing out the sharp contrast in her family’s life and the general life of the outside public in a vividness, a contrast which is contributed by the clever use of the black and white frames. Though each frame Marjane try to find an explanation and solution for the madness happening around her.

Some of the visuals – like those which show her having imaginary conversations with god about matters around her when she is nine; conversations with her uncle who was imprisoned in U.S.S.R; the way she shows her anger at God asking him to ‘get out’ from her room on the night of hearing her uncles death; her visual interpretation of the state fed recruitment campaign of ‘to die a martyr, is to inject blood into the veins of society’; she furtively smoking a cigarette in protest against the ‘dictatorship’ of her mother and then self declaring ‘with the first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye’; she glimpsing the horrors of war through victims of chemical warfare at a hospital facility - are quite powerful in their depiction.

In the scene where Marjane comes across the body of her friend from the neighborhood among the rubbles after a missile attack there is a single frame of illustration, which can be seen as one of the most brilliant uses of the visual format of storytelling. When she covers her face in horror with her hand, the total numbness and pain that Marjane feels over her friend’s death can be experienced in next cartoon panel, which is totally blank and black with a small subtext, “No scream in the world could have relieved my suffering & anger”.

This cleverness and creativity of the author as an illustrator can be further seen in the depictions of the young Marjane herself. The various emotions – surprise, anger, frustration, confusion, helplessness, terror - that the artist capture on the face of young Marji gives the character a soul which can make her feel like a long known friend for the reader. The narrative of the first volume ends when Marjane leaves for Austria when she is 15 to continue her studies at a more liberal and open European environment.

‘Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood’, is a powerful and heartbreaking graphical rendering of the dark times of a society which was shrouded in the horrors of war and oppression from the viewpoints of a young girl who is confused and trying to understand what is happening around her. The tasteful humor and dominant insights that the author artfully infuses into her visual panels gives this book a freshness, which will invigorate reader rather than completely sliding him into the chasms of depression and sadness. This is one of those graphic novels, which can find audience even among those readers who are quite skeptical about the comic-book genre.

A note to the reader: Since ‘Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood’ is told from the perspective of the young Marjane, the author intent seems to focus around expressing her confusions, her doubts and her attempts in trying to understand the world into which she was born. Understanding the fact that the author was not trying to create an accurate historical or political volume on Iran will help you in enjoying this book in a better way.

This can be read from the words of Marjane Satrapi herself in an interview from 2008.

"I use myself to talk about other things. I'm not a historian, not a sociologist. I'm a person born in a place where I've seen some stuff. That's why I put myself in as a character."

It was okay. And I guess it's good to get informed about history of Iran in a sense. But reading this book to know more about Iran is like reading Gone with the Wind to find out more about the American Civil War. I'm not saying you won't learn anything. But it's the perspective of a rich privileged girl who obviously wasn't affected by everything as much as it seems. I'm specifically talking about the war years, where the difference between the rich and the poor was obvious by how she worried about partying and other teenager stuff while the others died fighting.

Annnnyway, as I said, it's not a bad book, but please, after reading this do read other books to further educate yourself about Iran. Don't stop here because this does not tell you everything and is a very skewed perspective of the events. Plus, I would suggest you talk to other people as well, especially people with different ideas than her to get the whole picture.

Personal interpretation:

Good God!
What have I just read?
Is it a political panorama which's covering a certain era of IRAN?
Is it a noir-graphic book?
Is it an autobiographical memories of the author?
Is it a memoir?
Is it a book on assuring the goodness in human souls?
Is it a message of freedom, rebellion, dignity and patriotism?
Is it a chronology of a country IRAN in the eyes of this little rebellious and hopeful girl?
Well, it's all of that!
It really has defeated me to the ground!

***

Some scenes that really have defeated me:



n  n



I suppose there is a weird attachment between being near geographically and culturally and being in enmity and hatred!
We see that the most fighting people are Arabs, Persians and Jews who are historically so close with their languages, culture, religions and traditions.
***

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Oh! LOVE is impossible in countries that do not believe in the right of falling in love with whoever.
***

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Her uncle was a soviet spy?!
How can media fake facts.
***

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The real maternal both love and fear.
***

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***

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***

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My heart skipped a beat.
***

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The guardians of religion?
They are better to be named the guardians of spreading fear and disgust!
***

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It was the best piece of advice for all of us, grandma!

n  n


***

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I will miss you too, grandma!
***

To be continued in the 2nd volume...

I didn't appreciate this book as much, 12 years back when I read it for the first time, than I do it now. History has an uncanny way of manifesting itself, in our day to day lives. It's not even funny.