false 9517 0375714669 9780375714665 6888 634 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166022598m/9517.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9517.Persepolis_2_The_Story_of_a_Return 6238 Marjane Satrapi 31208 4182 2 0 false Fri Oct 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 05 20:46:08 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 00:12:22 -0700 2009 So what happened to that little girl's uncanny wisdom in Persepolis 2? Apparently it disappeared with puberty.

To be blunt, I thought this second book was only slightly better than various cartoons typical of Highlights for Children. Rather than an eloquent presentation of a young woman struggling with her own statelessness and cultural assimilation (which I think was Satrapi's goal), this novel metamorphosed into a self-indulgent, self-pitying, mind-numbingly melodramatic sketch of Marjane's teen angst and isolation from normal social life.
The book just didn't really work.
Why?
I guess overall I felt that any profundity concerning Marjane's temporary loss of cultural identity was overshadowed by the author's overemphasis on the kinds of stupid struggles that attend being a teenager in general. Let's face it: as teenagers, almost all of us experimented with some sort of mind-altering substance (remember Granny's tequila? You know you do). Most of us (minus the religious ones) had sex against the wishes of adult authority figures and despite the apocalyptic warnings of "The More You Know" public announcements. Nearly everybody had his/her heart broken at some point (unless s/he was out doing the heartbreaking, that is). Big effing whoop, that's just standard teenage stuff. Yet the book spends most of its time following Marjane as she lives through these standard teenage experiences and wallows in self-pity. Yippee skippy.

My point is, what Satrapi really forgot to show us was what NOT everyone already experienced as a dumbass kid: the experience of a refugee who can't find sanctuary--whether psychological or physical--in her own country or any other country that she encounters. That's what would have made the book a valuable read. Sadly, it wasn't accomplished.

Aside from that complaint, the story also didn't seem entirely genuine to me in certain places. Anybody who categorizes marijuana as a truly hard drug is CLEARLY an outsider to the culture itself. The whole "I blew my mind out with marijuana, poor me" portion of the novel struck me as extraordinarily poser--and nobody can spot a poser quite like an Oregonian. Are you lying to us about your "hardcore" drug experiences, Marjane?
It just seemed unnecessary and overblown.

The hour grows long, and so does this review, so I'll conclude by saying just this: I love Satrapi's other works and teach them in my upper division high school lit class, but this one was a disappointment.
Read "Blankets" by Craig Thompson instead.
]]>