Best graphic novels
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The Complete Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Adrianne by:
Book club
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. Su...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
people interested in Iranian and Middle East politics
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
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Read in December, 2007
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...more
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bookshelves:
2008,
comics,
graphic-novel,
memoir
Read in July, 2008
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 impa...more
Her story is both familiar and alien - a story of being a child enjoying her childhood during the revolution of '79, and how it impa...more
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graphic-novels
Read in June, 2008
Satrapi is an Iranian exile who decided to pen her memoir through the medium of a graphic novel. Persepolis is the visual and written portrayal of Satrapi’s childhood in Iran, her teen years in Europe, her homecoming in her early twenties, and her subsequent self-imposed exile from the too-controlling current Iranian government. Persepolis does an excellent job of simplifying the political history of Iran from its independence from the British, through the government of the Shah, through the I...more
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Read in December, 2007
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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2008books
Read in January, 2008
I purchased "Persepolis" for my fiancé, as a Christmas gift. After she was finished reading it, of course, I snagged it for myself and tore through it, my anticipation having been heightened to absurd levels: I had watched my fiancé read -- watched her weep openly, laugh explosively, then revert back to weeping. All in the span of perhaps five minutes. So I approached the book ready to laugh, ready to cry, ready to be moved and astounded.
Imagine my surprise when I liked the ...more
Imagine my surprise when I liked the ...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to laura by:
Bust Magazinerecommends it for: everyone
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
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
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Read in February, 2008
If all graphic novels were like this, I would probably get really into anime/manga and that sort of thing. Tragically, they aren't. This book is different than what I usually pick out for myself for so many different reasons, but I really enjoyed it.
I found myself several times wanting to critisize the plot or actions of the characters and then having to turn around and remember that criticism is futile since this is a true story. I can't exactly critisize someone for not living their life in ...more
I found myself several times wanting to critisize the plot or actions of the characters and then having to turn around and remember that criticism is futile since this is a true story. I can't exactly critisize someone for not living their life in ...more
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bookshelves:
graphic-novel
Read in September, 2006
recommends it for:
Anyone
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
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Read in September, 2007
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
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Read in March, 2008
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
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highly-recommended,
memoir-biography,
nonfiction
Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of memoir
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 to be i...more
Most readers are unlikely to be really conversant in 20th Iranian political history and it is absolutely fascinating to be i...more
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books-i-own,
comics,
non-fiction
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
those interested in culture and politics, especially politics
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 outer. Very pote...more
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 outer. Very pote...more
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bookshelves:
2008,
graphics-art,
memoir-biography,
middle-east
Read in July, 2008
An omnibus including Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return.
This is fascinating reading in a week where Iran is conducting missile tests. Like Bechdel's Fun Home, this memoir-in-cartoons begins in the narrator's girlhood and takes the reader through her young womanhood. Satrapi describes the Iranian revolution through a child's eyes--that is, personal concerns often supersede political knowledge. As the threat of fundamentalism grows, Satrapi's parents s...more
This is fascinating reading in a week where Iran is conducting missile tests. Like Bechdel's Fun Home, this memoir-in-cartoons begins in the narrator's girlhood and takes the reader through her young womanhood. Satrapi describes the Iranian revolution through a child's eyes--that is, personal concerns often supersede political knowledge. As the threat of fundamentalism grows, Satrapi's parents s...more
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Read in July, 2008
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. It's...more
I also appreciate Satrapi's lighthearted, jesting tone with which she refers to herself. It's...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Carrie by:
Lanirecommends it for: people who like comics and Catch 22
Marjane Satrapi is thoughtful, funny and wise beyond her years. In this simply illustrated graphic novel, the author tells her life's story as an Iranian child and a foreign teenager in Austria, followed by a young adulthood and marriage back in Iran. As a child she contemplates politics and religion and rebels against oppression where she sees it (in school, naturally). When her home country of Iran becomes dangerous, her parents send her off to study in Vienna, where she has to think about les...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Apricot (who first introduced me to graphic novels)
I hadn't heard about this book (graphic novel) until the movie came out. Since we didn't get around to seeing the movie while it was on the big screen, I decided I would try to read it first.
I really enjoyed the novel, but found myself a little confused (at the beginning) as to the sequence of events. Never the less, it left me with great respect for the author and all that she has experienced thus far in life.
The novel also caused me to think about the effects of a society attempting ...more
I really enjoyed the novel, but found myself a little confused (at the beginning) as to the sequence of events. Never the less, it left me with great respect for the author and all that she has experienced thus far in life.
The novel also caused me to think about the effects of a society attempting ...more
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2 comments
bookshelves:
graphic-novels
Read in January, 2008
Hey, Marjane Satrapi and I have the same birthday! There's a scene in the book where she says "It was my birthday. November 22." I'm proud to have her in my karass.
This is a lovely, poignant autobiography in comic form... for some reason the medium has become popular as a means of identity exploration and reflection, a la Art Spiegleman, Alison Bedchel, etc. This will certainly top most lists because Satrapi has an interesting story, and tells it unflinchingly, bolstered by stark b...more
This is a lovely, poignant autobiography in comic form... for some reason the medium has become popular as a means of identity exploration and reflection, a la Art Spiegleman, Alison Bedchel, etc. This will certainly top most lists because Satrapi has an interesting story, and tells it unflinchingly, bolstered by stark b...more
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Read in May, 2008
I finished the first book quite a bit ago and it took me some time to get the second part from the library. So here are some thoughts given the time gap between reading and reviewing.
The first is definitely more serious than the second book. Marjane's experiences with terrorism and an increasingly oppressive regime are scary. She really brings it down to a personal level, it's not always easy for me to conceptualize how a single family can be impacted by terrorism. Some of my favorite ...more
The first is definitely more serious than the second book. Marjane's experiences with terrorism and an increasingly oppressive regime are scary. She really brings it down to a personal level, it's not always easy for me to conceptualize how a single family can be impacted by terrorism. Some of my favorite ...more































