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The Complete Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi

Start date: June 1, 2016

Finish date: June 30, 2016

Discussion: Jun—Persepolis (2016)

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Jun—Persepolis (2016)

Graphic Novels as an Educational Tool
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Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
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Nov 25, 2013 Radhika rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favs

What I liked the most about this book is the sense of nostalgia that it evoked for me. My only connections to Iran were:
1) Iranian Cafes in Mumbai serving irani chai and brun maska.
2) Some great, outspoken and eccentric Parsi friends in college.
3) I had heard about the iran iraq war on radio. My family had a radio of the size of a piano (Ok I am that old:-))

It's a coming of age , autobiographical story of an Iranian girl, Marji. Marji comes from a liberal family, her parents are marxists. Inside What I liked the most about this book is the sense of nostalgia that it evoked for me. My only connections to Iran were:
1) Iranian Cafes in Mumbai serving irani chai and brun maska.
2) Some great, outspoken and eccentric Parsi friends in college.
3) I had heard about the iran iraq war on radio. My family had a radio of the size of a piano (Ok I am that old:-))

It's a coming of age , autobiographical story of an Iranian girl, Marji. Marji comes from a liberal family, her parents are marxists. Inside her house,She is encouraged to express herself without constraints . Outside, she is forced to wear a veil and show restraint.

I liked the episode where she is running to catch a bus. She is stopped by the moral police and asked to stop running because "your behind makes movements that are...how do you say obscene". Marji responds with "Well then don't look at my ass". I could also relate to this as girls in India are expected to dress conservatively, lest they incite a passing male to rape her.

At the age of 14, she is sent or exiled to Austria due to war escalations in Iran. She spends 4 years bouncing between a nunnery and hostels. She is forced to spend two months on the streets, contracts pneumonia and is forced to return to Iran. You laugh and cry with Marji. You hate her.. when she wrongly accuses a man of staring at her and who is promptly taken away by the religious police. All this so that they don't reprimand her for wearing makeup!.

At 18, after a failed suicide attempt and feeling like a westerner in Iran, she transforms or rather confirms herself and joins university, gets married at 21, divorced at 23 and decides to move to France at 24.

I could also relate to the satellite and dish television revolution mentioned in the narrative. I remember sitting wide eyed in front of the television to watch CNN, which was live telecasting the Gulf war and about the same time when MTV became accessible to Indians. This was a far cry from the state sponsored television, which stuck to the government's impassive and non aligned stance.

I enjoyed the character of her grandmother (not named). She is rarely shown in the veil, but that could be because she is mostly indoors. She is always there to hold you and give you that ' grand motherly' advice. The character reminded my of my grandmother who grew up in war torn Burma and was allowed to go to school, a rarity for girls in those days.

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Aug 16, 2016 Serena rated it really liked it

Kind of a cheat since I read volume 1 years ago. Good story although this type of graphic novel uses a lot of narration vs dialogue. Still love the drawings.

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