Read for MLIS elective

The last page destroyed me FUCK

Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's autobiography in graphic novel form. The first volume covers her childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution until she left to study high-school in Austria in order to get away from the war. What can I say, it was original, sometime funny, sometimes heartbreaking. One thing is certain, it won't leave you indifferent. Recommended.

This is a good book. Satrapi writes with a powerful voice. One can easily imagine her childhood and early life. Many times I do not enjoy graphic novels because I think they are weak and poorly-written, relying on pictures to tell a story and not utilizing good dialogue and text. That is not the case here. Satrapi's unique illustrations make the Iran of her youth come to life. Many difficult and painful issues are dealt with in this book: torture, death, martyrdom, etc. Instead of cheapening these concepts, the graphic novel Satrapi wrote makes them hit you harder. She knocks the wind out of you with her straight talk, her child self's views on what's happening and the stark brutality of humanity. A worthwhile read for anyone.

En Persépolis: La historia de una niñez, Marjane nos cuenta episodios de su vida entre los once y catorce años. Forma parte de una familia de buena pasar económico, instruida y politizada. Y la historia transcurre en Teherán, Irán, durante la transición revolucionaria entre el gobierno autoritario del Shah y la instauración de la República Islámica.

La familia de Marjane, al igual que mucha gente progresista, participa con entusiasmo de las manifestaciones contra el Shah, con la aspiración de alcanzar un sistema democrático moderno; y posteriormente quedó profundamente defraudada cuando la Revolución fue cooptada por los fundamentalistas islámicos, y la instauración de un régimen más conservador y autoritario aún.

La elección del formato de historieta, o novela gráfica, permite mostrar de manera más sencilla y directa muchos aspectos de la vida cotidiana y las reacciones, a veces impulsivas o ingenuas de sus protagonistas.

Aunque fue diseñada para ser leída por breves episodios, la lectura continuada se me hizo muy ágil, e interesante, y me ha transmitido, creo que con gran fidelidad la experiencia vivida por al menos parte de la población urbana de Irán.

Muy bueno.

Para evitar la saturación, he preferido completar la primera parte, y continuar posteriormente con la continuación de la historia, La historia de un retorno.

"In any case, as long as there is oil in the Middle East we will never have peace."

There are few books that make such a hard impression on me, and this is one of them.

Something this book reaffirmed for me is that I definitely take things for granted. The sociopolitical situation in America is not good. We have serious problems with social equality, economics, and political corruption. But it's not civil war, bombs blowing up civilians, fundamental tyranny, fascistic control over media and entertainment and attire, your friends and family getting kidnapped off the street and tortured and hacked to pieces.

Fucking hell. We have it great in America, don't we? To have grown up during this brutal violence, this tyrannical insanity... I truly can't imagine it, and my heart goes out to those who have and still do. So if this book can be one thing for you, let it put your life in perspective. Seriously.

Brilliantly and honestly written, with the unmistakable curiosity and almost foolish self-assurance of children, and wonderfully if cartoonishly illustrated, Persepolis is one of those very rare books that can change you as a person.

Rating: 3.75* of five graphic novel, 5* of five film

The Book Report: So this is the lightly fictionalized life story of Iranian emigre Satrapi, as she grows up in the waning days of Shah Reza Pahlavi's rule, the revolution, and the subsequent theocracy. She emigrates first to Vienna, for school at the Viennese Lycee Francaise, and then after a time back in Tehran, off to Paris. We meet her delightfully outspoken grandmother, her neither-fish-nor-fowl mother, her drippily emotional father, and a host of family members of varying degrees of inimicality to the various horrible regimes Iran has suffered in the past 100 years.

Oh, oh, oh how I hate to write these words, knowing how many people will flee screaming into the distance as I do: This is a coming-of-age story.

Wait! Come back! It's not that bad, I promise! Well, the film isn't, anyway. I suggest viewing the film instead of the graphic novel.

My Review: I don't much like graphic novels, seeing them as pretentious cousins to the comic book. And I never got the hang of comic books. Something that takes me ~10min to read does not make much headway with me. So when I found that my local liberry had both the graphic novel and the film of this title, I thought I'd do a fair test: Read the graphic novel first, then view the movie; compare and contrast.

Movie. Definitely. Movie is as beautiful as the graphic novel, but more deeply involving because it's more nuanced in its storytelling style.

But make no mistake, both versions are aesthetically sophisticated and artistically beautifully realized. I focused very little on the words of the graphic novel, because they were so-so literature and because the images were so glorious. The same, well not identical but similar, words accompanying the moving images...! Orders of magnitude of difference. Had I only experienced the graphic novel, I doubt I would have bothered to write any sort of review. The film is, well and truly, a masterwork, and possibly even a masterpiece. I know it left me wrung out and still curiously uplifted. I can't say it enough: Rent this film. Watch it with an open heart. It will reward you.

2 stars

This graphic memoire follows the author as she grows up with the turn of the Iranian Revolution and the start of the Iraq-Iran war. Overall, I enjoyed this story enough, but believe in total it is "meh". I thought the images were striking and the way they tied to the text on the screen helped evoke more emotion and meaning. The aspect I enjoyed most in this book was the way it is narrated through the point of view of young Marjane. As she begins to understand things, so do you, and sometimes that is shocking. The moment that sticks with me most, I think, is either the news of little boys being sent to war with keys around their necks or the scene where she finds out how they murder little girls: they wed them, rape them, and then kill them (for it is illegal to kill a virgin). Seeing the story through such young eyes really brings a different perspective which is more blunt; it allows you to see the war what it really is for. After reading this graphic memoire, I think I have a better understanding of the Iranian Revolution, its violence, and the unheard stories of loving families.

Thank you all for joining in for Episode 10 of Quickie Review with Valliya!



Previous episode: Sixth of the Dusk - Brandon Sanderson ★★★.75

Next episode: The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ★★★

Well, having read the book, I went also to see the film last night. But I will probably not wish to go to see the musical or buy the soundtrack of the musical with specially commissioned songs by Sting and Bono and Madonna and Cher and several other rock stars who only have one name, all their other names having been given to their favourite charities to auction off.
I didn't read Persepolis Book Two so was interested that the film incorporates both books. However my joy turned to large bananas which have been left too long in the fruit bowl of life and are now blackened and soggy, as I came to realise that the perky sassy girl of Part One grew up to be the miserable pain in the ass shoegazing student of Part Two. So the movie demonstrated the curious fact that you can have the most exotic of backgrounds (Iran! revolution! fundamentalism! war!) and still be a dullard.
(I should interpose that the visual aspect of the movie is very pretty, and when one has determined that the political content is close to zero, one can transfer one's attention to the exhuberant cartooning without a qualm).
There are two very odd things about this two-book-one-movie : the word AYATOLLAH is never mentioned, not once. As neither is the other word ISLAM. But if I recall correctly, Iran experienced an ISLAMic revolution led by the AYATOLLAH Khomeini. So this is like "My Life in Germany 1930-1940" without mentioning Hitler or the Nazi Party. That's odd! Maybe she'd be on the receiving end of an icepick haircut if she named names, but still. Also odd is the apparent fact that the author's family could send the author out of Iran to Vienna for years at a time - not once, but twice! What implications does this have for our view of the intolerable oppression of the regime?
So in spite of all its trappings, Persepolis in the end is as political and insightful as Shopaholic, i.e. not political and not insightful, and gets away with it because the author can not unreasonably retort that political acumen was quite outside of her purview as she was growing up trying to score Iron Maiden cassettes and trying on lurid shades of lipstick; whence come all the cardboard cutouts which populate the movie, and whence all the unexplained actions and motivations. The dialogue from the adults in her early life is either "the regime tortured your uncle without mercy. He was a communist" or "I put jasmine leaves in my bra every day". It seems Persepolis has gained its popularity from sheer quaintness. I was looking for more.

4 stars!
So in an effort to diversify my reading (aka read something other than romance for once) I joined the Goodreads group Our Shared Shelf, a feminist book club run by Emma Watson. With the recent political climate in the US, I wanted a way to expand my mind and find other readers to relate to. I highly recommend this group, and while I am more of a lurker than a discusser, it’s a lot of fun and great to be surrounded by intelligent, like-minded people.

Persepolis is a book this group read about a year ago, but when I saw it amongst the material the group read I knew immediately I wanted to read it. When I was in college my World Literature class watched the movie (I know, the movie and not the book? *sigh*) and I have been meaning to read it ever since. On top of that I live in Los Angeles, a heavily Persian community and many of my real life friends are from Iran, so I was interested in learning more about the history of this country.

This book is an autobiographical memoir by Marjane Satrapi, mostly of her childhood living in Iran in turbulent times. It takes place mostly during the late seventies and early eighties, and depicts what life was like for her in a changing country. Marjane and her parents are rebels against the new regime, seeing that what the government is telling them isn’t always true. This book shows how Marjane adjusts to a new restrictive lifestyle as well as a history of the country told by her. It was very personal, you feel what Marjane feels. I fell in love with her as a character, you cannot help it while reading this book.

I highly recommend this to anyone who is willing to read something outside the box, and anyone eager to gain perspective on events in other countries that you may have not known before.


Follow me on ♥ Facebook ♥ Blog ♥ Instagram ♥ Twitter ♥

"Persepolis" is a widely acclaimed memoir/graphic novel, it was rated highly by several of my fellow readers and therefore I've had my eye on it for a while. Sadly, now, after reading this book, I am a little underwhelmed by it.

As a graphic novel, it is a notable work. The cartoonish style of the drawing is superb, the subject matter is very current, the combination of tragedy and humor is clever.

However, as a political memoir, "Persepolis" lacks. I don't know exactly why, but I never got a grip on what Satrapi's personal views on the politics within her country are. In fact, I am not even sure if she really knows what what was happening in her country. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this memoir ends when the author is 14 (although writing it as an adult, she should be able to present her views clearly). Or maybe it is because Satrapi herself never personally experiences any hardship in this book. I find it very interesting that in times of turmoil, during the civil war for democracy, during the rise of religious fundamentalism, during the war with Iraq, Satrapi's family never seems to experience any discomfort. Quite the opposite, when people die and suffer, the writer's most hardship is to hide the liquor at a party (which they are not supposed to have), or to wear a headscarf, or to get an "Iron Maiden" poster through customs. This narration from a perspective of a person in power is a little disheartening and has a bit of a fake tone to it, as if the author doesn't know what is really happening in her country and writes about from her million dollar mansion while being served by one of her maids.

It's not a bad book, especially for younger readers who want to know a little bit about Iran and its current political events. It is presented in a very appealing, easy format. But for me personally this book appears to be too superficial to leave any kind of lasting impression. I will however read the second part of the memoir. Maybe it will have some more insight.

Reading challenge: #5 - 1 of 2.

A wonderfully-told coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. Satrapi retells her childhood with a surprising amount of humor and wit. I am excited to dive into the 2nd part!

My first graphic novel. Extraordinary brilliance. Informative on the Iran culture during Islamic revolution. Lots of insight into a common man's life in Iran and tackling the enemies within.

Graphics are great. Perfect storyline. Excellent conversations. Full on emotions. What's not to like?