Persepolis (edition 2003)

Persepolis is a powerful use of imagery and sharp writing, and outlines the true story and life of Marjane Satrapi, the daughter of socialist reformers in a war torn Iran. The material in Persepolis may be ideologically sensitive, but could be highly effective in a multi-cultural unit for possibly Freshman students. There is a second section of the story outlining Marjane's years as a college student in Vienna, and her eventual return to Iran. However due to being older in this installment I would likely not include the second installment and instead would allow students to seek it out if they personally wanted to.

Reading Level: 5.8 ( )

Characters: Marji, strong-willed 10 year-old Persian girl; Taji, Marji’s mother; Ebi, Marji’s father; Marji’s grandfather; Mehri, left her parents when she was eight, to live with and work for Marji’s family; Siamak Jari, a family friend who was held as a political prisoner; Mohsen Shakiba, a revolutionary held as a political prisoner; Uncle Anoosh, who told Marji about the torture he suffered in prison and escaped to Russia; Kaveh, Marji’s friend who emigrates to America.

Setting: Iran in the 1970s and 80s.

Theme: Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, expression, education are fundamental to living a happy, satisfying life.

Genre: graphic novel, YA memoir

Golden quote: “I couldn’t bear looking at them there behind the glass. Nothing’s worse than saying goodbye. It’s a little like dying.”

Audience: older teens interested in politics and the history of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Curriculum ties: Social Studies; Government—read the personal narrative about life in Iran during the Islamic Revolution to support the study of political events. Develop arguments about the purpose of the second amendment, and the separation of church and state.

Awards: 2003 Fernando Buesa Peace Prize; New York Times Notable Book; Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year.”

Personal response: A conflicting complex of political and religious interests is revealed in this personal account, told in a comic arts format. Marji’s slowly developing understanding of the political events which so greatly affect the lives of herself and her family, make a powerful experience for readers. The specific effects of the evolving political climate, are captured in the emotions and reactions of the young girl. Understanding the motives and the sides in this ongoing tumult, finally seems less important than understanding the effects of war on people: children growing up in oppressive conditions, families torn apart, people spending decades in prison, loved ones telling stories of torture and brutal executions. The very personal way she tells the details of the story—her cries of unfairness regarding class distinctions (shown in the servitude of Mehri)—reveals her intelligence and her strong convictions. At the end, she loses her family when they send her to live in Europe. This is a powerful narrative that leaves the reader sharing the sense of loss felt by Marji as she walks away from her parents. ( )

5Q, 3P - Satrapi's ability to combine so many themes (war, coming of age, death, family, history) into a memoir and graphic novel format is incredible. The narrative is woven through the roller coaster ride of emotions and situations that teens face in an honest, humorous, depressing and candid manner that hooks the reader. While many American teens have never experienced war, Marjane's character is one that is both unique and relatable, making the unfamiliar topics easier to comprehend. Marjane may be growing up in a time and place that we could not even imagine, but her curiosity and desire to find herself in a universal experience. Although this is a fantastic vessel for introducing the complex and convoluted history of a nation that most teens have not been unbiasedly exposed to, I placed the popularity rating at a 3P because I think that it might be too dark or dense for some teens. ( )

I saw Marjane Satrapi at the Free Library in Philadelphia a few years ago, and she was so charming and great and for some reason I always think of her saying that one of her most important influences was The Bicycle Thief. ( )

fantastic! really, really good. ( )

I think I need to learn more about the Islamic Revolution and read it again, because I was so lost in the politics that it was hard to enjoy the story. ( )

Satrapi has an interesting tale to tell in this graphic memoir. A westerner will gain an understanding of the Iranian revolution, as well as the Iran-Iraq War. For example, that the initial instigators of the Revolution against the Shah were Marxists who then had to get in bed with the largely illiterate Islamic fundamentalists in order to have the popular support necessary to continue the break from the old government. Satrapi's story offers many details of day-to-day life under the fundamentalist regime. For example, would you be willing to risk death for a Kim Wilde tape or a pair of sneakers? I found the rather primitive illustrations insufficient in some respects. I couldn't often tell the difference between the characters. This may be partly ascribed to the fact that the people in this time and place were required to dress similarly. A particularly affecting scene occurs juxtaposing the flying bodies of young boys, exploded by land mines in the war with leaping children at a party. By echoing the body language in these two disparate scenes, the difference in the fates of rich and poor children were poignantly realized on the page. ( )

Marjane Satrapi lived in Iran before, during, and after the cultural revolution in Iran. Here, she sets down her memories of what life was like for a child during that time.

I just read Art Spiegelman’s [b:Maus|2445951|Maus|Art Spiegelman|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|1658562] about a month ago and loved it. I thought I would go ahead and give this other highly-acclaimed graphic novel/memoir a try. I enjoyed it, if that’s the correct word, but it didn’t affect me quite the same way Maus did. I’m not too sure why. Maybe it’s because I know more about WWII than I do about Iranian history. All I know about Iran is what I learned from [b:Reading Lolita In Tehran|4459068|Reading Lolita In Tehran|Azar Nafisi|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|903067]. So I felt a little confused about what was going on. As an American, life before the revolution didn’t look too bad. At least the women didn’t have to wear the veil. Later, it did become clear that there were problems that weren’t readily apparent. I think the other thing is that Spiegelman spread out the violence in Maus and made it more effective. In Persepolis, it just kept coming and I think I became a little desensitized to it.

I do feel like I learned more about another country, and that’s always a good thing. Maybe my one little piece of understanding won’t make much of a difference to the world, but maybe if we could all just try to have a little more understanding, things would change for the better. There’s my bit of philosophy for the day.

Having said that, I did come away with a greater appreciation for where I live. I don’t have to walk in fear of someone arresting me because of what I’m wearing, or the music I’m listening to, or even vocalizing my thoughts. We aren’t perfect by any means, but we have it good. I can’t imagine living in a place where I have to make the decisions that Marjane’s family has to make. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll leave it at that.

I loved the way little Marjane thought. The book wasn’t really funny, but some of the things she said and thought had me laughing out loud. These did provide much-needed breaks from the serious, scary tone of the rest of the book.

Overall, I highly recommend this. It gives some insight into a culture that’s very different from our own. Satrapi makes her point effectively, but I personally wasn’t too clear on what was happening at the beginning. I wish I’d had the second volume nearby when I finished—this one ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. ( )

Insightful memoir ( )

Book club selection. Really excellent example of the graphic novel memoir -- MAUS is probably better, but also way more depressing, and also also more impenetrable, I think. The drawings are lovely, with some great use of abstraction, and the text is interesting in its ability to switch from the authorial narrator to the in-text character. The second volume is not nearly as good. ( )

It seems that the past few days I've been picking up books that I start, read, ignore all other stimuli in the world, then finish.

This was another. I went to bed, picked it up thinking I would read a chapter or two then finish reading it the next day. A few hours later... I put the finished book down, got out of bed and went online to research some more about the author/artist.

Gripping, shocking, make you rethink your mindset book.

I really am thinking about making this a book that my 8th graders read from - they have done a graphic novel before _Maus_ and enjoyed it. I think they would like this book as well, and having something true that is about the Middle East and is about someone their age - there are almost too many reasons. ( )

Persepolis è un sacco di cose, parla della storia dell'Iran e delle sue Rivoluzioni (quelle culturali annichiliscono sempre la cultura, chissà come mai), è una biografia dell'autrice che parla della sua adolescenza, tratta del disagio degli immigrati e della sensazione di non appartenenza in una cultura.
E' una graphic novel che parla di affetti e di una bambina che cresce con la guerra senza perdere il desiderio di indipendenza e di libertà, che, come ci viene ricordato, ha sempre un costo da pagare.
E' l'autrice che si disegna e si racconta, e proprio per questo è una storia sincera, bella da leggere e da guardare.

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Persepolis is different things; it speaks about the history of Iran and its Revolution (as always the Cultural one annihilated the culture itself), it is a biography of the author talking about her childhood, it deals with the immigrate discomfort and with the sensation of not belonging to any culture or tradition.
It's a graphic novel talking about affections and about a child growing up with the war without losing her desire of independence and freedom (that always has a price).
It's the author drawing and telling about her life, and because of this it's a honest story, beautiful to read and to look at.
( )

Excellent memoir of youth and innocence lost in the turmoil of Persia. Heart-rending. Looking forward to next volume immensely! ( )

pictures a bit basic but story good. graphic gives you a chance to tell small stories. ( )

Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood
By: Marjane Satrapi
Awards: "Best Comics of 2003" list for Time magazine, (a movie was made about it)

Marjane Satrapi has a good life in Iran. An only child, to two loving parents, she is well off and relatively free. She is a descendant of the Shaw, and she lives a relatively privileged life. When a revolution begins happening in her country, her life changes forever. This wonderful autobiographical graphic novel is extremely educational. It is an easy way to learn about the Iranian revolution, and how it affected the everyday lives of the Iranian citizens. The artwork is extremely simple but highly effective in getting the point across. It’s not preachy, but it tells the story of a little girl, and her opinions about the whole revolution and how it affects her life, and the life of everyone around her. Overall I would recommend this story to anyone 14 and over. Teenagers would love this novel, along with adults. Although slightly biased, it reflects the beliefs of most of the Iranian citizens today still living with the consequences of this highly oppressive revolution. ( )

Marjane satrapi, in the novel Persepolis, describes Iran’s revolution from a girl point of view. She writes with the innocence of a child and the knowledge of a grown woman. Firs chapter is called “The Veil” in which Marjane is forced to wear a scarf to cover her hair in school. She was not strictly religious, and Marjane and her peers ignore the religious garments. She grows up in a political, religious, and intellectual period of time. She explains the effects of cultural changes and harshness of reactions, during the revolution, in words and illustrations. Instead of enjoying her childhood, she is full of wonder and sadness. She defines different types of rebels in the society. She has lots of curiosity. She asks herself why their neighbours are missing. Why is the veil mandatory? What is wrong with wearing denim jeans and jacket with Michael Jackson picture on it? They have different culture at home. They drink wine at home, and she collects the posters of Kim Wilde and Iron Maiden. Finally, because of the Iran-Iraq war, her parents decide to send her to Europe for safety.
Persepolis is an appealing autobiographic written in graphic novel format which has simple, but meaningful black and white illustrations. Marjane pictures the story very well with a conversational style of a girl`s thought. The Persepolis graphic novel adapted into an animated movie in 2007, and it received the Oscar prize for Best Animated Feature and also won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. ( )

I finished reading the graphic novel Persepolis and I did "enjoy" it. Enjoy is a difficult word to use in describing the horrors which were Iran just after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. This book was written by a young woman of an upper class family who lived through the societal upheaval and was able to leave for school in Europe. She very cleverly is able to tell the story of arrests, torture, killings, imposition of strict Islamic norms, closing of the university, and disappearance of people, without being overly tragic and all the while keeping the unique voice of a young girl, with idealism and loyalty to family and country. I feel good about recommending everyone should read it. It is not challenging. It is charming. And you will learn something. That is saying a great deal in favor of a graphic novel. ( )

This is an illustrated story of a 10 year old girl in Iran. It starts in the eighties when Iran was ruled by a monarch and follows the life of a modern, well educated and a well to do family. You learn about the monarch, the stuggle to free the country from the monarchy, the power which was taken up by religious fundamentalists and the Iran- Iraq war.

The illustrations are mediocre but reveal much more than mere words can convey. Its a look into a country about whom everyone has prejudiced ideas. ( )

A memoir of sorts, about a young girl, born in 1969, growing up in Tehran. It is very well drawn and laid out. It is the story of revolution, of when ideology clashes with reason and how people survive amidst horror. I would have rated it higher except for the sadness it brought to my heart, describing how the horrible things people do to one another. It is insightful, inspiring and interesting, but oh so very sad. ( )

Loved this graphic novel about growing up in Iran around the time of the Islamic Revolution. The pictures are wonderful, and although it's hard hitting and upsetting it's also very funny. ( )

Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s self portrait of daily life in Iran from the age of six until the age of fourteen, covering the period that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic revolution, through to Iran/Iraq war, highlighting the devastating effect it had on the country & its people. We see this through the eyes of Marjane an intelligent and outspoken child of committed Marxists ("caviar leftists"), and the granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors. Drawn in black and white, the graphic novel found great popularity following it’s release, and was translated into several languages. The English edition was translated by Blake Ferris and Satrapi's husband, Mattias Ripa.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would like this book, my first graphic novel & only picked as an experiment as to whether I’d like such books. As I child I loved comics, read all the usual ones, but I grew up and left such childish things behind (or so I thought). Recently, I’ve seen a lot of Graphic Novels & started to become intrigued by some of them, so after a quick check through the online library I saw this one (having seen the film reviewed on The Culture Show awhile ago).
And yet I loved it, raced through it like an Olympic athlete on banned substances, ruined my literary elitism amongst my work colleagues by going on about “some comic book” instead of the latest translated epic thousand page no one’s ever going to read book, that I normally carry like some badge of office. Loved the stark black and white imagery, the simplicity of the drawings, Loved the humour, the irony, the way the simple everyday reality was put across.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/marjane-satrapi.html ( )

Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood is to the Iranian Revolution what Maus is to the Holocaust. Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir is autobiographical while Spiegelman's account was third person (his parents were survivors). Both accounts deal with similar themes: state power, oppression, evil, and the human quest for dignity and freedom.

Satrapi's coming of age tale is depicted in beautifully drawn, simple black and white, evocative of wood print etchings. The art and story are compelling and educational. Today more than ever, in a post 911 world with Iran ever present in the news cycle, this window into a foreign society and culture is a gift. ( )

A blurb on the back described this "graphic memoir" as the "Persian love child of Art Spiegelman and Lynda Barry." Through childlike simple and whimsical black-and-white comic strips Marjane Satrapi gives us her memoir of what it was like growing up in Iran's Islamic Revolution from the ages of six to fourteen, before she was sent by her family out of the country.

I'm not really much of a fan of the graphic novel. For me it just can never have the richness of film or text. A friend of mine who disagrees says I'm just not slowing down enough to appreciate the more visual medium. She may be right--I blasted through this book in little more than an hour--maybe not enough for this to have it's best effect. I did feel I learned a lot about modern Iran and what it was like to be a little girl from a modern-minded family in the midst of a country run by Islamic fundamentalists and during a war (with Iraq) that took a staggering amount of lives. It's pretty impossible not to love the young Marjane and her family, and the tale is at times both poignant and darkly funny. And I admit something about the comic strip format does suit this perspective. So if I'm rating a bit on a curve here, also remember this format isn't my cuppa of tea--so it had to force itself against my resistance to charm its way into my heart--though charm it did. ( )

Ok. I'll admit it. I really liked Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. A graphic novel, it was the second I've read which turned to delivering the story via comic strips. The story was quick paced, the vocabulary simple enough, and the pictures unique enough that I would definitely recommend using this book in a high school setting. I believe it would be a perfect example of a book one could use in a World History class setting. There is so much of the world to cover in a single class when teachers are given the task of teaching the history of the world, from 1500 to present day. That is a lot of time and a lot of places. However, in the scheme of things and with political situations now as they are, I believe that this would be an insightful way for students in the classroom to get a glimpse of the world in the middle east not as it was a thousand years ago, through movies like Aladdin and Prince of Persia, but instead is a look at current situations in the Middle East, which is necessary in our modern day world. ( )

I was so excited about reading this book, as it was on my "to read" list long before even taking this class. I just never got around to it. I was not let down by all that I have heard about this book; in fact, I think I will re-read it this summer. I am coming around to the graphic format, which used to bother me. But after reading the "Maus" series and now "Persepolis," I have opened my mind. Having lived through this, the author is well-qualified to write on this subject matter, and even made it more personal than if the author had not lived through it. I would definitely use this book in high school classes, but probably would stay away from it in middle school classes, as there are some rather graphic pictures that I would not want my middle school students to study. ( )