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Loading... Chicken With Plums (2004)by Marjane Satrapi
None. pretty good. ( )A bit disappointed actually. I really adored Persepolis and was probably expecting the same kind of storytelling here, but I felt very meh about the main character Nassir (Satrapi's musician uncle who died over love and music). I was anticipating a much better story, but I kind of really disliked the mopy and rather shallow Nassir. He was probably much more complex than the novel suggested, so maybe it was a case of too much story told in too few pages. This didn't hold me the way Satrapi's other work has, but I may need to read it again. This is another Persian family narrative, but with a male protagonist and focus. It has the feel of a family story that has been burnished by association with mystical explanations. Nasser Ali Khan, was a famous Iranian tar player. When his favorite tar is destroyed he looses his focus and reason for living. Despite having a wife and children, he decides he wants to die. The graphic novel delves into Khan’s past; his first love, his relationship with his mother and his introduction to tar music. These elements are interesting, but Khan himself is so hopeless that it’s hard to find a reason to root for him. Khan is the author’s great uncle, so I understand why she wrote the book, but it’s definitely not her best. She is an incredibly talented artist and story teller, but the book fell flat for me. There was no emotion and Khan comes across as incredibly selfish. I still loved the artwork and it was a quick read, but it was disappointing in comparison with the author’s other work. BOTTOM LINE: Skip it and go read Persepolis. When his favorite tar is broken, Nasser Ali is gripped by a severe ennui and the story describes his memories and thoughts about his life during the eight days it takes him to die. Surprisingly heart-wrenching tale about love and loss, even though our main character is not very agreeable. It's much too short (less than 100 pages), but manages to pack a bit of a punch at the end.
Nasser is also visited by his children and his brother, thinks about the pleasures of the world — including his favorite dish, which gives the book its title — and reviews old hurts to his reputation and how others treated him. His suicide through neglect is a bit over-glamorized here, but it raises important questions of the nature of suffering in art.
References to this work on external resources.
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