Satrapi's autobiography: her childhood in Iran, her teenage in Austria. ( )

http://spwebdesign.livejournal.com/60... ( )

What an amazing piece of literature. This is easily one of the best examples of how powerful a medium the graphic novel can be. Satrapi captures the emotions of both a society and person in transition. ( )

Marjane’s story is compelling as she wrestles with the everyday turmoils of adolescence along with an oppressive regime that threatens her self expression. The poetic illustrations and writing style are simple and elegant. Her story will appeal to both teens and adults.

I was expecting this to be much more a book about an individual's battle against a fundamentalist regime, so was pleasantly surprised to find it more a tale of family life and struggle within such a regime, but with the regime very much in the background of the tale. Why should that make it a better book? Because it's all about how life goes on, how people find ways to resist and overcome the idiocy of fundamentalist doctrine. That isn't to say that the people always come out on top. Many of the authors relatives and friends of her family die during the course of the narrative. But ultimately it is a story of hope and overcoming, of the domaninance of the normal.

The illustrations are fantastic. The style seems perfectly suited ot the Iranian context, emotions that would take a page of prose to capture, often relayed in a single picture.

My one quibble is with the lack of context given to the author's own family. Yes, clearly they are well connected, clearly they are wealthy by Iranian standards, but how exactly did they survive with a relatively high standard of living during the regime? How wealthy were they before it started? How wealthy were they by the end of the novel? How were they able to sustain holidays abroad etc? It's of interest just because as someone looking in on an unknown landscape, I'd like to know the economic foundations of life carrying on with some of the trappings of more prosperous times. ( )