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The Happy Phantom
Poozer
Joined: 24 Jul 2010
Posts: 6
Location: oh jeez tower
Mon Aug 16, 2010 6:56 am |
 Post subject: Review: Persepolis |
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Hi! Ok, I hope this isn't too long... Also, stop laughing!
Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir Persepolis is set during the tumultuous Iranian revolution of 1979 and the turbulent years that follow, chronicling Marjane’s journey through childhood and young adulthood, all the while telling the story of Iran itself. The novel is split into two volumes. The first, The Story of A Childhood, recounts Marjane’s coming of age during Iran’s revolution and subsequent war with Iraq, while the second, The Story of A Return, chronicles Marjane’s misadventures as an ex-pat in Austria and her difficulty fitting in with an Islamic-fundamentalist Iranian society upon her return.
Born to liberal, affluent parents, Marjane is a precocious young girl with a rich inner life. She is supportive of social change but rebellious against the repression of the Islamic fundamentalist regime set up after the revolution. As Marjane grows increasingly insubordinate (especially to her repressed, dogmatic schoolteachers) in response to the oppressive new government, her parents decide that it is best for her to study abroad. Marjane is sent to Austria to study, where she is stifled by loneliness and is brought face to face with heretofore-unexperienced xenophobia and racism. Naive, flighty and giddy with newfound-freedom, Marjane drifts from place to place, falling in with punks, druggies and poseur-intellectuals before becoming homeless and contracting pneumonia on the streets of Vienna. Miserable, Marjane returns to Iran, where she sinks into a deep depression, unable to tell her family the truth about her time in Austria because she is afraid of disappointing them. She finds the fundamentalist regime more oppressive then ever, haunted by the ghosts of the martyrs who died in the war and blatantly repressive of color, gaiety and anything deemed “improper”.
Marjane goes to college, gets married, gets divorced and eventually moves to Europe for good, this time a grounded and fully-formed woman who has realized that there is nothing left for her in Iran. She ends the novel by noting that freedom has a price- in her case, it is separation from her beloved family.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Persepolis. I found Marjane to be a likable and relatable protagonist: I identified with her middle-class guilt, her feelings of isolation from both her homeland and from Europe, and her rebellion against the repressive values of the fundamentalists in power. I cheered her on when she sassed her teachers, cried out against the discrimination she faced in Europe, and my heart genuinely broke a little when she lost the revolutionary uncle she idolized to political imprisonment and subsequent assassination.
The other characters, particularly her parents and grandmother, are drawn just as sharply. Marjane covers a wide range of topics and emotional responses in the novel, nimbly changing tacks between heartbreaking ruminations on the inherent unfairness of class societies and the unjustifiable violence of war to humorous anecdotes about childhood misdeeds and acidic digs at the stupidity of small-minded authorities. Both volumes of Persepolis feature plenty of sharp observations and profound insights, as well as witty asides and strange, surreal moments. The illustrations, rendered in a starkly whimsical black-and-white cartoon style, serve to emphasize the bluntness and simplicity of the child-narrator’s perspective.
As much as I enjoyed the novel, it had its fair share of faults: story lines were occasionally left unresolved or dropped altogether. Additionally, I found the first half more enjoyable and insightful than the second half, and found child-Marjane to be far more engaging than her adult counterpart. The second half too often fell into rote “teenager” story lines about the trials of puppy love or experimentation with drugs, while the first half was a wholly unique account of the devastation of war and the many unsung battles of girlhood. I don’t feel that the second half was completely unnecessary but I do think that the first half is far superior. Unfortunately, this inconsistency compromises the overall quality of the novel as a whole.
Still, I would recommend Persepolis to other readers because it is well-crafted but human, and it gives its readers a look “under the veil”; it allows us an opportunity to observe a place and a society that is foreign and unimaginable to so many of us. With Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi draws a picture of life under the veil (and as an expatriate) with humor, insight and genuine compassion for those of us who continue to find our way among the rocks. |
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NakoZonbineko
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Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Posts: 210
Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:00 am |
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Awesome review...
That's pretty much all I could say.
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Sir Pepoy Josepito
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Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 603
Location: in sanity
Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:12 pm |
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why did i miss this review
Good job, Yaki! I haven't actually read the graphic novels (GASP) but you did a convincing enough job of making me want to!
My only problem with this review is that it's SPOILERIFIC but it comes with the territory. I really should have read this a long time ago!
...do you happen to have a physical copy? >_>
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The Happy Phantom
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Joined: 24 Jul 2010
Posts: 6
Location: oh jeez tower
Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:38 pm |
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I don't have physical copies of the books, sorry.
Also, sorry about the spoilers! I (inexplicably) assumed that because Persepolis was on the disc you guys gave me, that you all had read it. Oops! |
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Sir Pepoy Josepito
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Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 603
Location: in sanity
Mon Aug 23, 2010 7:17 pm |
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no, it's totally cool
i'll just read it sometime soon
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