The third graphic novel of Marjane Satrapi's The Persepolis Series is all about Marjane's coming of age in Austria. She's ostensibly there to study, beginning her journey as a "good girl" who tried really hard to learn the language and fit in. But life in a new country comes with its fair share of culture shock.


With no parental supervision, she has to develop her own moral compass and decide how far she wants to go to fit in. As she finally realizes how much freedom she now has, she goes just a little wild. She gets expelled for talking back to a nun (which honestly was justified), switches places of living and schools, then going the whole gamut with cutting her hair and going through an emo goth rebellion phase and hanging out with all the wrong people. People who, having lived their entire lives in a nice, wealthy, socialist country can not comprehend how horrible regime change, religion and war might be to someone who has been through all three.


The saddest part of the story is the final betrayal towards the end. A boy who she had spent all her parent's money on was just using her, and she discovers his cheating when she comes home early one day. Marjane runs off and lives like a homeless person for three months, beating herself up for trusting the wrong guy, ultimately realizing how far she has gone to make him her "everything" only to lose her sense of self worth in the process.


Realization is the first step in fixing things, and her family does care for her so the stage is set for her return to Iran. This issue hit fairly hard if only because I had gone through a lot of similar things when I went overseas to study, so I get where Marjane was coming from. I wish I could have been there for her to moderate some of the worse events, but it is only with the passage of time that she'll realize things will get better.

creo que este es el que más me ha gustado de los que he leído hasta ahora.

SO GOOD

Conocemos la siguiente etapa de la vida de Marjane, ha dejado atrás la niñez y ha huido de su país a petición de sus padres. Aquí nos compartirá recuerdos de una iraní punk en plena adolescencia refugiada en un país donde se encuentra completamente sola y señalada por su situación. Desde sus conflictos emocionales, relaciones románticas hasta sus peores momentos, Marjane nos cuenta su historia con cruda honestidad mediante una narración e ilustraciones que me siguen conmoviendo hasta las lágrimas.