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Jun 19, 2010

Adrianne rated it:

A question I heard a lot while I was reading this book was "how does it compare with Maus?" -- and if I were to answer that question, I would say, I suppose, that I thought that Maus was more compelling, with more classically heroic characters, detailed, careful artwork (and-I-mean-come-ON it was about the holocaust, haven't we all agreed that's the official trump card?) -- but I'm not sure that it actually makes much sense to compare this book with Maus. Sure, they're both graphic nov More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Sara rated it:

One of the things I loved about this book was Marjane's very individual voice and how it transformed from the start of the book when she is 10 to the end, when she is 22. Ten-year-old Marjane, by the way, is about the most awesome kid I have encountered in print. She reminded me of Harper Lee's Scout, except Marjane was cuter and more hilarious. Also, more political.

Most readers are unlikely to be really conversant in 20th Iranian political history and it is absolutely fascinating More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Shannon rated it:

Originally published in France in four separate volumes, and later in the US in two, The Complete Persepolis brings them all together for the first time. It is the story of the author's youth, growing up in revolutionary Iran before moving to Austria at 14, and then later returning to Iran before escaping again, this time to France, where she still lives.

Her story is both familiar and alien - a story of being a child enjoying her childhood during the revolution of '79, and how it imp More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

James rated it:

This is a graphic story that is worthy of all the hype attributed to it. Persepolis is an autobiography of Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi, and accounts her childhood into womanhood which takes her from Iran to Europe to Iran and ultimately back to Europe to the eventual present day. Many aspects of the work aid in pushing this work far beyond other autobiographies, and its not just the illustrations that accompany it which, though at first glance seem simple and childish, are actually complex More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Tom rated it:

There are few testaments more accordant with the underdevelopment of our species than the sad and bewildering ubiquity of dogmatism and, in the case of Persepolis, the dogma in question is (ho-hum?) religion. It may be fashionable, though still dangerous, to speak out against one's own misogynistic theocracy these days but such was not the case in the years immediately following Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. When undaunted women like Marjane Satrapi chose to spit upon their hands and play agai More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Melissa rated it:

I enjoyed this book immensely. It's fantastic. I like the combination of autobiography and history. One thing that turns me off to history most of the time is its authors tendency to generalize--individuals are jumbled together into a single composite being. Marjane Satrapi, however, discusses Iran's revolution in the '80s as she experienced it. It's incredibly personal, which I appreciate.
I also appreciate Satrapi's lighthearted, jesting tone with which she refers to herself. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

John rated it:

I read this after listening to Marjane Satrapi speak in Portland.
http://johnwsmarvin.blogspot.com/2008/04...
This is one powerful story. Marjane is a very intelligent person and a great storyteller who lived through the Iranian revolution and watched it turn against her and her family. When war with Iraq breaks out her parents send her to she study abroad in Austria where she becomes unhinged, lost in a culture she can't relate to. Back in Iran the war grinds to a halt, as she becomes More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

mathilda_craft rated it:

Eye opening. A little confusing in the beginning. I had a hard time telling when they were talking in the past tense versus present tense, but I think I understood it for the most part.

I loved it.

It was very open and honest. How she saw things as a girl growing up in a country where it was so hard to tell who was telling her the truth. She believed her parents, and yet, at once, also believed her school and what they taught her. Such conflicts were inner as well as o More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 11, 2011

Jen rated it:

I don't know what to call Persepolis. It's a graphic novel, of course, but it's also an autobiography and a history and a social commentary. Marjane Satrapi takes an honest and sometimes severe look at her childhood, teenage years, and early 20s. Her graphics are striking and tell as much of the story as her words. Sometimes I became so engrossed that I had to force myself to step back a bit and remember that I was reading someone's history -- that Satrapi had lived and survived the heartbreakin More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 02, 2011

Karla rated it:

Persepolis is a heart-wrenching story about a girl growing up in war-torn Iran. Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical tale covers the tumulteous history of Iran from its emperors to the modern day Islamic Revolution. If you need to get some perspective on what is happening today in Iran and indeed the Middle East, please read this book. Satrapi's description of a loving family trying to survive under a despotic regime forces you to understand what it is like to live in a country that imposes its More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2012

Cecilia rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Jason rated it:

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

The farther we progress into the early 2000s, the more convinced I am of how in the future, this period of history will be seen as one where Americans finally started more and more understanding the Middle East in the same semi-complex way they currently understand, say, Europe; because m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

new_user rated it:

I think this is will be more response than review. Satrapi's Persepolis fulfills its purpose as a memoir, but I will tell you right from the start, that it is indeed overhyped, particularly if you have read the rave critical reviews. Perhaps, since the field of graphic novels as memoirs is relatively new, a work like this could be called ground-breaking. Persepolis as a memoir is an interesting read. I say this only as a result of having read Part Two of this book, The Story of a Return. If I ha More...

11 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Shivering William rated it:

www.theincompletes.com

The Dime-Store Education

Comics for Smart People

I left Persepolis as a tip for a cute hairstylist once. I’m not sure if it was the comic, my hilarious jokes, or the way my hair sounded between scissors, but we dated for about three months. I’m not suggesting you can use comics as a tool to pick up women. I’m telling you. It’s a fact.

Every once in a while a comic comes along, grabs you by the belt and shakes you out of any p More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Kirstie rated it:

I think the history of Iran from the 1970s to present is one of the most muddled of all histories...it's very difficult to figure out what things were perpetrated by Iraq and what was a government oppressing and even killing its own people. What you end up having is an accumulation of anecdotes about the experience of survival which feels wrong in the context of history because they will, by nature, be subjective....However, this still seems more reliable than believing any of the propaganda put More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Justin rated it:

I received this book as a Christmas gift from my brother. Yes, I had to tell him what I wanted, but it was worth it. I was intrigued by this book when I saw a preview for the film. After that, I would pass by it in the bookstores wanting to read it, but always passing by it. Finally, I get my chance to read it.

I must say I was enamored with this book. It caught me by surprise how wonderful it was. It totally changed my opinion of the graphic novel format. I was impressed wit More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

laura rated it:

Persepolis is a memoir in graphic novel form, which describes the childhood and young adulthood of the author in Iran. Her story starts with the revolution that started when Satrapi was a young girl, and chronicles the drastic and now infamous changes that took hold of the country.

Satrapi was the daughter of a progressive, upper-middle-class, urban couple in Tehran, so this story is not the Story of All Iranians. However, I think readers can be transormed by a story that highlights More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Maggie rated it:

If you've read Art Spiegelman's brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus: A Survivor's Tale, then you should easily be able to wrap your head around Persepolis - a memoir in the form of a graphic novel. (Or, rather, several graphic novels, since both Spiegelman and Satrapi chose to release their stories in multiple volumes. I am reviewing The Complete Persepolis, which is actually two graphic novels: The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return.) Like Maus, Persepolis uses art to tell a pers More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Julia rated it:

Clever and captivating and other things that start with C. The moments of life it covers would be memorable without the pictures, but the pictures... It's a really good use of the comicy format (graphic memoir, not graphic novel) to really be something more than just a story with pictures. Integrated well, I guess, but also that the art is powerful. And good as memoir qua memoir too; an interestingly-told life story that also gives readers a real sense of the world(s) it's part of. (Perhaps More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Hilda rated it:

I read these books consecutively - in fact I bought them as a box set - and I really enjoyed them. It gives us a genuinely intimate portrait of what life was like growing up in Iran, first under the Shah's right-wing dictatorship, then during the Islamic revolution which led to a clerical state and through the war with Iraq. The two-part memoir takes us from 1980 when Marjane was 10 years old through the 1990s when she's become a woman who had endured exile at a young age and a return to her cou More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 13, 2011

Caleb rated it:

so last night i finished persepolis by marjane satrapi, a graphic novel-style memoir about growing in iran to free-thinking parents in the 70's, 80's and 90's. i've seen it around at work without ever really giving it much attention, but since it is being made into a movie (limited release in the states on christmas), it's getting a lot of buzz. i read about it in some publication (i forget which, but no doubt a lesbian and/or feminist magazine) and it looked pretty interesting and like a quick More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Michael rated it:

I read this book in just a few hours. It was my first 'serious' comics book, so it took me a while to adapt to its story-telling style, and perhaps this is why I glided over more than enjoying its beginning. Maybe it is that with comics there is little space for text, many things are fixed by being draw rather then described (I guess these are common critiques comic books receive when compared with text-only lit). Or perhaps it was just the fact that the style changes as the main character grows More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Casey rated it:

Ugh. I am deeply ambivalent. First, I found the political side fascinating. If you're interested in Iran's history, the graphic novel format is really accessible. However, I really disliked Marjane. I feel a little guilty about this, as she's a real person. While she and her family were proud that she was outspoken, I found her rude and obnoxious. They believed she was raised to be "free." I certainly appreciate their hugely liberal views in such a repressive environment, but t More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Cynthia rated it:

I actually read this one in French, in a weekend. It's a great story in terms of the history it gives a voice to, that of women during the Iranian Revolution. The story also covers themes of alienation, cross-cultural struggles, religious differences, the list goes on and on. I gave it just four stars because there are parts of the story for which the graphic novel format works less well than others. I would still highly recommend this book. I would also suggest using at least parts of it i More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Omzi rated it:

I really liked this book, and the idea of introducing all this info about the life in Iran through a comic book is amazing!
It also aroused lots of questions in my mind about how Persians see the Arabs; how they see what is called in Egypt for example (which isn’t originally an Arab country) an Islamic fath (opening) and a blessing, as an invasion. I’m also now more curious to know about the average Iranians, especially that the only two books I read by Iranians about their lives in Iran in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 20, 2011

Marija rated it:

I was very enlightened after reading this book. The abilty to tell such a complex story using the graphic novel format is ingenious. The pictures depicted so much emotion and they were visually appealling and relevant to the story. I really appreciated Satrapi's honest and uncut story of her childhood in Iran. It was also interesting to read a child's perspective on war and societal changes. Her adolescent years in Austria were also compelling and heartbreaking. She really captured the essence More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

kari rated it:

This is the first graphic novel I've read and while it won't ever be my favorite format, I feel that for this book, it worked really well. The author is able to give a lot of information in a few drawings and captions that would take many pages to write out. The pictures tell the story as much as the words do. It's brilliantly done.
It's hard to say I enjoyed the story because it is sad, about war and the religious revolution, when the females have to start going about veiled and how her fa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Cat rated it:

I love Satrapi's wry voice and the way she captures the confusion, sadism, wonder, vulnerability, and perspicacity of the child's point of view. I found the graphics particularly wrenching in their simplicity when they depict death and destruction in patterned or evocative ways rather than literal ones. She does a great job of taking advantage of the explanatory power of her illustrations to communicate the narrative of Iranian history and then using the irony, comedy, and perspective of the g More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Andrew rated it:

Persepolis is a brilliant comic strip chronicling a young woman's life in pre- and post-revolutionary Iran. I believe it's now a now a movie from Sony. I read the whole thing in a day.

My friend's stepmother, who is Iranian of the same generation, said the book is a spot on account of what it was like growing up in Tehran during that period.

The comics themselves are clean and perceptive and witty. This book was good enough to inspire me to find and read "All th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 02, 2011

La Stamberga dei Lettori added it

"Andavo a poco a poco acquisendo coscienza del contrasto esistente tra l'ufficialità del mio paese e la vita reale della gente, quella che si svolgeva dentro le mura di casa. La nostra condotta pubblica e la nostra condotta privata erano agli antipodi. Questa disparità ci rendeva schizofreniche. Per trovare una forma d'equilibrio facevamo una festa quasi ogni sera, ma neanche in casa ci lasciavano tranquilli." (cit. da pagg. 317-319)

Innanzitutto una precisazione: "Persepolis" More...

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