Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood | Marjane Satrapi | A story without the confines of...

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood | Marjane Satrapi | Fresh perspective

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Persepolis: The St...

	Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Marjane Satrapi Pantheon, 2004 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 172 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine ?Best Comix of the Year?
A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi?s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah?s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran?s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane?s child?s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

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A story without the confines of traditional boundaries

People often associate comic books with childrens' fiction, as if the medium itself is inflexible. Some of us the comic lovers know that is not the case. And case in point Persepolis - where the emotions of a little girl in the politically and socially charged Iran takes us through what would have been a blind journey. I think pictures don't necessarily paint a thousand words, it paints many, and it leaves the number to the reader. While written words force a description on your mind, a picture leaves a lot to your imagination. It lights the spark with the image, and the image takes on its own life in your mind. This is what I felt while reading Persepolis, where just with two shades, Marjane Satrapi gives us enough fodder to ruminate in the visual fields of our imagination. I could see the drastic transformation of one of her neighbours going from a mini-skirt to the veiled burkha.

Marjane Satrapi is gifted and trained no doubt, and it shows in the depictions of emotions that are otherwise hard to describe. You may also want to look for books by Dupuy and Berberian, that tell of personable tales in their lives or fictitious characters drawn with similar dexterity.

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Fresh perspective

I feel I learned more about the history of Iran through the eyes of a little girl who was practically forced to become an adult by the age of 14 than most textbooks. Marjane Satrapi, or "Marji" captured my attention, thanks to the successful marriage of her "crudely-drawn" panels and approachable narrative. While I have yet to read the sequel, I feel I know this individual on a personal level as the book fills us in on her deepest fears and hopes and conflicts.

Brave New Girl

With Marjane Satrapi's animated film playing in theatres and available on disc, I almost jumped at the chance to read her book, the part-comic/part-memoir of Satrapi's childhood in Tehran, Iran.

To avoid confusion with more current events, `Marji' (as she was called as a child) recalls her upbringing in a Marxist family, the fall of the last Shah regime, the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and Iran's war against Iraq in the 80's. While Satrapi's words are powerful enough to get in your head and stay there, her simple black-and-white drawing style captures the laughter, the tears, and the raw emotion felt throughout the story. Though only an individual account, the story itself is quite vivid in describing how Iran had left a world of tyranny and chaos--only to wind up in another. Though controversial in its own right, "Persepolis" is still a riveting book for those seeking intelligent reading.

This comic is unrated: Violence, Adult Language, Adult Situations.

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