O carte care vorbește despre greutățile imigranților și încercarea lor de adaptare la un mediu total diferit de cel în care au fost crescuţi. În același timp, o carte care vorbește despre maturizare, asumare, adaptare și acceptare. O recomand din suflet!

Segunda parte desta história magnífica. A Marjane começa a explorar a vida dela fora das pressões culturais e sociais fora do Irão e com o crescimento dela pela adolescência e entrada na vida adulta, dá por si a questionar-se em relação a tudo.
Considero uma leitura que deveria ser recomenda a todos. Adorei vê-la crescer e descobrir o seu caminho, enquanto geria um passado fundamentalista na luta por um futuro progressista.

"Freedom had a price…"

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انطباع شخصي:

في هذا الجزء الأحداث الجارية وإن كانت تبدو طبيعية، والجزء أقل في مستواه من الأول الذي يحكي عن الطفولة، التي تحمل بطبيعة الحال، لمسات ساحرية، لكن في هذا الجزء يظهر الإنسان، بأخطاؤه، بهواجسه، بتشتته، بضياعه، ببحثه الدؤوب عن نفسه.
مرجان كانت تسرد بطريقة طبيعية، الأحداث لا تختلف كثيرًا عن نشرة أخبار، لكن هناك شيء في الداخل يظل يفعل بك دون أن تدري ما مصدره:

أ- تشتت الهويّة:
مرجان تحمل اللغة الفارسية، الفرنسية، الألمانية، الإنكليزية. أية غربة تعيشها مرجان؟ وبأية لغة يمكن التعبير عن لحظة حبّ صافٍ تحت سنا القمر؟ وبأية لغة سوف تهدهد رضيعها الأول؟ وبأية لغة سوف تعبر عن أحاسيسها؟ عندما كانت تغضب بشدة، كانت تشتمهم بلغتها الفارسية دون أن يفهم النمساويون منها كلمة. هل نحن نشتم ونحبّ فقط بلغتنا الأم؟ والباقي يأتي باللغات الأخرى التي تدخل في الوعي على شكل أقراص الدواء: أي أنها تدخل بحرص وتحت عناية العقل؟ بينما هذا ما لا يحدث مع اللغة الأم؟

ب- العرب والفرس:
العداوة تبدو متجذرة بين العرب والفرس. لأول مرة أدرك أن لديهم هذه الخلفية التاريخية عن أن العرب غزوا أوطانهم تحت لواء الإسلام. ما أقرب الثقافات الشرقية عمومًا: العربية، الفارسية، العبرية. إلا أنه لا مفر من العداوة الطاحنة بينهم. القرابة الثقافية لا تصنع إلا أعداء على مر التاريخ كما يبدو.

ج- رؤية الآباء:
لماذا خرجت لنا مرجان؟ لأن مرجان كان خلفها أب وأم قاما بهذه التضحية النفيسة من أجل ابنتهما: نحن لا ننجب طفلاً كي يساعدنا نحن، بل كي يساعد البشرية. نحن نؤمن بمستقبل البشرية في عيون أبنائنا. كم تسبب هذه التفصيلة المرارة في قلب المرء!

د- كونكِ امرأة، شيء مختلف تمامًًا!
إن الخيارات التي تملكها المرأة في المواقف اليومية هي مختلفة تمامًا عن الخيارات التي يمتلكها الرجل. قد يذهب الرجل إلى عمله ويكتشف أن هناك قطعًا في قميصه، ويمكن إكمال يومه بلا مشكلة، بل لن يلاحظ أحد هذا. أما المرأة إذا لاحظت مشكلة صغيرة في لباسها وهي بمنتصف طريقها إلى العمل، ستضطر للعودة لتغيير كل لباسها.
لا يحكم الرجل على تصرفات المرأة اللامفهومة؛ لأن خياراتها محدودة ورفاهيتها قليلة.

هـ- الحرية باهظة الثمن:
هكذا تكون الحرية لابد من دفع الأثمان الغالية في سبيلها. من يستطيعون الخروج من البالوعة: يدفعون كل شيء مقابل لحظة حرية صادقة مع أنفسهم. إنني أقول: ها أنا حصلتُ على الصدق الكامل مع نفسي، وأنا في البالوعة نفسها!

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مشـــــــاهد:

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صدمة الزواج: الزواج كتكبيل للحرية.

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ازدواجية خلقتها النظم الاستبدادية والأصولية

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بهذه البساطة!

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هل قالت سيمون دي بوفوار حقًا هذا الكلام؟!

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جدار اللغة

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A well-said feminist lesson

Loved the first part, could not wait to see what happens next.

I wasn't too impressed with the first "Persepolis" book and, sorry to say, but I am impressed with "The Story of a Return" even less.

Unlike many readers, I like the cartoon-like art of Satrapi's books. I also enjoy her anecdotes. The writer is at her best when she infuses humor in her otherwise dark life story.

What I thoroughly dislike is the author herself. It is very rarely that I find no compassion for book characters. I mean, I can find love for all kinds of vile people, but no luck here. I don't know if Satrapi realizes it, but she portrays herself in a very unflattering light - as a self-centered, self-important and self-righteous person. Satrapi is judgmental and hypocritical - she likes to criticize people for the vices she indulges in herself (I still remember her accusing her friend of being a shallow traitor for obsessing over a lipstick and her walkman when she herself was just as obsessed about her Nikes and audiotapes a few chapters before). She is ungrateful and disrespectful (she calls her nun teacher a prostitute after she is reprimanded for having bad manners). She likes to blame her misfortunes on other people when she is the source of them 99% of the time (she leaves her apartment and lives on the streets for 3 months and then complains later she was mistreated). She puts an innocent man into a mortal danger when she accuses him of talking to her in an indecent way, just to conceal the fact that she is wearing lipstick! The list goes on and on. Satrapi is full of self-pity and completely lacks any kind of introspection; she never owns up to any of the bad things she has done or blames herself for her misfortunes. She prefers to write off her bad decisions to indulge in drugs, promiscuity and general self-destruction on her loneliness and her war memories. But she fails to show these connections in any kind of sincere, meaningful way.

It is obvious that my dislike for the narrator totally overshadowed the good parts of the book. I just think Satrapi was not (and still is not) a very self-aware person. However, I do see why her superficial, self-pitying and insincere memoir is so well-received. It fits very well into a very popular nowadays trend to vilify Iranian (or any fundamentalist) regime by providing all kinds of disturbing details of Muslim life style for us all to indulge in.

I think what ultimately made this novel fall flat for me is that I was prepared for something more along the lines of "thought-provoking" and "eye-opener" and instead finished this feeling rather disappointingly underwhelmed.

I thought the author's idea of writing her autobiography in the form of a comic, to be an intriguing and fun premise, but also, perhaps a problematic one as well. While certainly being innovative, I just don't think that there was enough strength and potency, in either the words or the pictures, which was unfortunate because the author had a real chance to really impact the reader with graphics that could speak a thousand words in thunderous volumes. I found the overall tone of the narration to be more along the lines of fanciful/whimsical with an added touch of self-pity, and at times I could not take Satrapi seriously, much less identify with her or even sympathize. It's important for me to feel connected with the characters I read, even more so in an autobiography that serves as a political memoir, but the circumstances for Satrapi were filled with so much teenage stupidity and imprudence, and seemed to be so distant and faraway from the hardships and trials that the people of Iran were suffering from, leaving me far-flung from the issues as well. In all honesty, there was just not enough meaningful moments for this to leave any real impact on me, and I find this memoir to be ironically unmemorable.

In the first part of Persepolis little Marji leave her parents with a hope, but, in the second part, she returns home as a despair.

As much as you would love the innocent rebel in the little Marji, before she embarks on her journey to Austria away from her war-torn country ravaged by Islamic fundamentalism in the first part, you would detest the grown up one, who falls into decadence in a freer commune, makes unholy acquaintances, commits terrible judgmental errors, succumbs to a life of drugs, sex and the natural consequence of depression.

It is undoubtedly brave of Marjane to write the 2nd half of her life, knowing very well, that she would potentially fall from the alter in her readers' views. It is understandable, that the teenage angst, the feeling of loneliness, the despair of being away from your loved ones, the haunting past all would come to make Marji a bitter rude iconoclast who makes questionable life decisions. However, for a reader, who naturally expects their rebel little darling to grow up to become a daring heroine who would stand up to the guardians of tyrannical morality with her action and words, the second part Persepolis would come as a disappointment.

But, hey, she redeemed herself, by authoring this book, didn't she?

Review for part 1 and 2 here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Satrapi continues to tell her life story with simple graphics and story telling. It's a great way to learn about what happened in the life of Iranians during and after the war with Iraq. Through her own challenges, we see what liberals had to face and how the only way out to most of them was to leave their own homeland. Quite sad.

Satrapin tarinat ja piirrosjälki ovat mainioita, sisältökin yleissivistävää ja ajankohtaista. Hienoa, että tällaista on.

One of the best books read this year and better than the prequel.

2.5
I liked the movie more than the book. The book is more detailed and some parts are a bit different from the movie. The book is written for non-Iranians. So as a person who's lived her whole life in Iran I found some parts redundant and overexplaining.