Recommended Ages: Gr. 9-12

Plot Summary: Mari is living with her modern family in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, which affects their family at home, in school, their social lives, and their every day life. The women are told they must wear something to cover all of their hair. Mari's school and textbooks change according to which government is in control. A few things banned are alcohol, parties, communism, rebellion, and Western music and clothing. Many family members and friends of the Satrapi family executed. Some also decide to move out of the country. When Mari is 10, she loves the idea of someone she knows who has been tortured in jail, but she doesn't quite understand why the revolution is taking place. She reads as much as possible and talks to as many people as possible to figure it out. She asks to go with her parents to the protests and finally does once, but there was a lot of violence and noone went again. The book ends by her parents sending her to a school in France where she won't get in trouble for her independence and rebellion.

Setting: 1980, Iran, Islamic Revolution

Characters: Marjane Satrapi (Mari) - starts when she's 10 y/o
Grandmother
Taji - Mari's mom
Mehri - Marjane maid/nanny/friend, started the full time job when she was 8 y/o
Hossein - Mehri's crush from across the street, stopped because she was a maid
Uncle Anoosh - was in jail for 9 years, had wife in Moscow, stayed with Satrapi's for a while, told Mari his entire story, then was arrested, she went to prison to see him before he was executed
Mohsen - friend of the family, political prisoner, released, then found with only his head in the bathtub
Siamak Jari - friend of the family, political prisoner, was released but then escaped death by crawling with a flock of sheep
Laly - Siamak's daughter, Mari's friend

Recurring Themes: war, Islam, revolution, protest, jail, scared of government, religion, reading, growing up

Controversial Issues: violence

pg 52 "he was cut to pieces"

pg 55 & 72 & 101 "shit"

pg 58 unmarried couple "let's make a child" before he is executed

pg 62 "asses"

pg 74 Taji, mother says" They said that women like me should be pushed up against a wall and f*ed. And then thrown in the garbage."

pg 80 "those assholes"

pg 94 "according to Shite tradition, when an unmarried man dies, a nuptial chamber is built for him. That way, the dead man can cymbolically attain carnal knowledge. It was obvious that many of the fighters died virgins."

pg 96 hitting yourself is one of the country's rituals. During certain religious ceremonies, some people flagellated themselves brutally. Sometimes even with chains. [man holding knife bear head, blood squirting head"

pg 105 ass, slut

pg 117 executed together, Mari had first cigarette

pg 125 18 y/o communist executed

pg 145 mom tells Mari that it's against the law to kill a virgin, so they "take her virginity before executing"

pg 150 Mari talks about her grandmother bosom in a sentimental way

Personal Thoughts: Despite the long list of contoversial issues in this book, I would be tempted to put it in the junior high library for sophisticated 8th graders if I thought they would enjoy it. Unfortunately, it is a slightly difficult read for someone who is totally unfamiliar with the time period. There are many large vocabulary words related to social studies (government, religion) but an 8th grader might still find the book too dry.

This is the film of the book by Marjane Satrapi, and she played an integral role in making the film lending it yet more credibility.
The visuals are stellar, just stunningly powerful, as are the depictions of Marjane's interactions with her grandmother.
There are two soundtracks, one in English and the other in French, and the overall impression that I had was that English was subordinate to the French one. That does not mean that the English one was worse, but that the French one was the focus of the production team's efforts.
This would be a wonderful resource for high schoolers, given that the film deals with death, war, revolution, sex, and drug use. It may be a strong resource for French language courses at the eighth grade and above level. ( )

Bloom, A. (2005). Fiction in Review. The Yale Review, 93(4), 165-71. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from Article Citation database.

(2008). [Book Reviews]. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(7), 839-40. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from Article Citation database.

Plot Synopsis
Persepolis is the remembrances of a young girl growing up in Iran during the Revolution.

My Thoughts
The limitations placed on people and the struggle to free one's self from those limitations is a heartbreaking topic. Each story Marji relates and illustrates reminds me of how good I have it, and reminds me that those across the oceans are not so different.

Marji's Marxist parents allow her to be a freethinker, challenge her to question the Shah and the subsequent regime which attempt to impose ideology upon the country. Marji questions her teachers, revels in stories of revolutionary heroes, and rocks out to rock and roll in her Michael Jackson jacket and forbidden blue jeans. In the midst of cultural repression and the subjugation of women, Marji is all punk and sneakers.

In this graphic novel, the relationship between the images and text is symbiotic, each necessary to the other for the full story to be told. The images do not merely visualize the text, they add to the text, and sometimes do so in a dramatic fashion. Juxtaposing words of pride in the heroic men with images of the dead really highlights the ideas of a child with the reality of a war. I was impressed by the starkness of both the words and the images. ( )

A beautiful and complex memoir told in the form of a black-ink heavy graphic novel. ( )