(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

The farther we progress into the early 2000s, the more convinced I am of how in the future, this period of history will be seen as one where Americans finally started more and more understanding the Middle East in the same semi-complex way they currently understand, say, Europe; because make no mistake, international readers, even though the last ten years have mostly been marked by our glee in blowing sh-t up over there, in private there are more and more Americans each day right now eagerly learning just a little more and a little more about what makes up daily life in the areas once defined by the Arabic, Persian, Ottoman and Moghul empires, with the generalities of such terms as "Farsi" and "Shia" (to cite two random examples) becoming more and more known among the general populace for the first time in US history. (And in fact this is ironically a regular occurrence in American history, for wars to be the catalyst behind our population starting to understand a certain region in a more sophisticated way; look for example at how little most Americans knew about far-east Asia until our involvement in such places as Japan, Korea and Vietnam in the second half of the 20th century, how such basics as Chinese food and karaoke are now sincere staples of American life, when just 50 years ago they seemed impossibly exotic to most.) And thus do we arrive at Marjane Satrapi's thought-provoking and highly entertaining graphic novel Persepolis, which has an interesting history: essentially a memoir of her youth as a loudmouthed, chain-smoking punk-rocker in the midst of Iran's oppressive Islamic Republic years, the story was originally published in the early 2000s as four underground comics in France (where Satrapi now lives); which then became a cult hit in the UK when first translated into English and gathered into two bound books; which then brought about the opportunity to make a popular experimental animated film out of it; which then became a surprise hit in the US and garnered an Oscar nomination; which has just recently finally prompted a one-volume English trade paperback version here, which has quickly in the last year become the book to mention here in America at hipster intellectual cocktail parties, half a decade since the same was true in the EU.

And there's a reason this has become such a huge cult hit in the US, because Satrapi here in Petropolis breaks the entire complicated sequence of events that have happened in Iran in the last thirty years down into a whole series of easily relatable Western-style stories, allowing us to understand the complex, surprisingly diverse population of that country in a way many of us never have before: from the ongoing controversy there among women themselves over "taking the veil" (think of American women debating the relative merits versus embarrassments of chick-lit), to how their decade-long war with Iraq's Saddam Hussein allowed religious conservatives to slowly take over all aspects of the government in the first place (think Bush and the Patriot Act), to the ingeniously subtle ways that rebellious youth display their independence in such an environment anyway (by letting a bit of hair slip out from underneath their veil, by wearing brightly colored socks, by participating in highly codified Austenesque nonverbal flirting sessions in public squares and school stairways). And by Satrapi having the courage to add the details of her own unique, sometimes trainwreck of a life -- her habit of falling in love with gay men, her stint as a homeless gutter-punk in Vienna in the late '80s -- the book never even threatens to devolve into afterschool-special liberal homilies, but instead stands strongly as a solid piece of personal yet political literature, a great example of how powerful graphic novels can be when they're at their best, and why your snotty little slacker friends are always encouraging you to read more of them. Given the events that are going on right this moment in Iran (summer 2009, for those reading this in the future), and how similar they now seem to be in so many Americans' eyes to our own peaceful overthrow of George Bush and his "Christian Taliban" ilk just a year before, now is a better time than ever to tackle Persepolis yourself if you never have; and needless to say, the movie as well is now in my queue over at Netflix, and I will be getting a review of it up here too after I've finally gotten a chance to watch it.

Out of 10: 9.7 ( )

A great finish to the story of Marjane as she is once again on her own and searching for her true self.

While the movie was so-so, in my opinion, mainly due to the subtitles, I thoroughly enjoyed the two books that make up the story of Persepolis. Sometimes I would read and even forget that this is a true story and not just a tale

I would highly suggest the complete Persepolis for anyone searching for a little history lesson along with an adventure because this certainly is a great story to hear.

After leaving home to go to school in Vienna at the end of Persepolis, Marjane moves from one home to another, all the while trying to fit in with classmates. Beginning when she was fourteen, she recounts rooming in a convent, her first love, and finally living on the streets before returning to Iran.

Her story of adolescence and young adulthood is heartbreaking. The theme of fitting in - or not - among others stands out throughout much of the story: too Western here, too Eastern there, and feeling separated because of the vast differences between experience of war or love or what have you. Though the particulars may not seem familiar, the universal themes are completely relatable. ( )

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6... ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1185816...

I'm startled to see that it is four and a half years since I read (and greatly enjoyed) the first volume of Satrapi's autobiography. At the end of the previous book she had managed to get out of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Austria. Persepolis 2 falls into two halves: her Austrian experience, and then her return to Iran, at the end of which she emigrates again to France. In both Vienna and Tehran, she is in a relationship whose breakdown is a key factor in her decision to leave. But the narrative similarities between the two halves of the book actually help to contrast the huge differences between the two. In Vienna, she is an immigrant, sworn at by old men on buses, bereft of family links, ending up sleeping on the streets in the middle of winter. In Tehran she is spoiled by her experience of the outside world, picks fights with the religious authorities, has difficulty fitting back in. (In both cases, though this is not quite how she outs it, she struggles with substance abuse and depression.)

The story of the education of Marjane is told with detachment, and occasional amusement and shame at the actions of her younger self. As with the first volume, however, the real strength of the book is her depiction of life in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where few actually support the principles of the revolution, but all must pay lip service to it, and all women must obey the dress code. (She also answers a question I almost asked a few weeks back.) As an art student, she has the bizarre experience of trying to draw a fenale model whose body is completely covered; the girls solve this by modelling for each other at home. She successfully challenges the college to change the uniform for female students, and ends up designing it herself. Finally, at the end of the book, she and her husband embark on a grand project exploring Iranian culture and mythology; but in the end it turns out to be incompatible with the principles of the Islamic Revolution, and their marriage ends, and Marjane leaves for France.

It's all in black and white: on the surface there appear to be no shades of grey in Satrapi's world. But if you look closely you can see that they are there. ( )

Just as Persepolis was set against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution, Persepolis II follows Marjane into the Iran-Iraq War. Kind of. She's in Europe for a lot of it, and a good amount of the book is about her experiences with family and friends and relationships and less about politics.

But the fundamentalist government lurks in the background and affects even the most minute aspects of Marjane's life - for example, a life drawing class is more or less useless when everyone has to cover every inch of skin. She reflects that these strict prohibitions are only distractions; if women walk outside every day wondering whether their pants are long enough, they then wouldn't be wondering where their freedom of thought and speech went.

Persepolis is an interesting coming of age story, and a critical but thoughtful look at recent Iranian history ( )

Marjane continues her story from where Persepolis: A Story of a Childhood concluded. Her parents have sent her to Austria to escape the bombings and terror of war, giving her a chance to thrive with a good education. After struggling for 4 years to find herself amongst strangers, Marjane decides to go back to Iran. Once again, she has an adjustment to make and continues to discover who she is as an Iranian woman.

Persepolis 2 was a coming-of-age story with the twist of war and cultural differences that I am not acquainted with or accustomed to. I found Marjane to be very forth-coming about her life in describing and depicting the tumultuous teen years without the support and security of her parents and other family members. Her anguish was evident.

What I appreciate most about the two books was the educational value it offered me. They shed light on an area of recent history that I was only peripherally aware. I am delighted that Marjane has been able to make her life a success. (4/5)

Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..." ( )

This graphic memoir follows Satrapi’s four years as an adolescent in Austria, and the six years following that back in Iran to her eventual permanent exile to France, from 1984-1994. In Austria she is sent to live at a convent school, and again, runs afoul of the nuns. As a teenager in exile on her own, she doesn’t know how to fit in. Austrian teens and adults can’t imagine her experiences in Iran. When she goes back to Iran, they can’t imagine her life in Austria, nor can she imagine theirs in Iran. Eventually, she goes to art school, in her life drawing class, she draws a woman who is entirely shrouded; they learn to draw drapes.

“The regime understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself: Are my trousers long enough? Is my veil in place? Can my makeup be seen? Are they going to whip me? No longer asks herself: Where is my freedom of thought? Where is my freedom of speech? My life, is it livable? What’s going on in the political prisons?”

Apparently, there is a third of these, at least in French, I hope it gets translated soon. I also will try to get the movie based on these books by Satrapi. ( )

http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2009/01... ( )

This continues Marjane's story from the original Persepolis immediately. She is in Austria, save from the war at home, far away from the love and security of family. While in Europe, we experience the Westernization of Marjane which comes both with advantage in intellectual and emotional pursuits. Unfortunately, these pursuits do not come without an overindulgent side. For as much as Marjane is able to flourish in Europe, there comes a point where it nearly swallows her whole and her return to Iran is preferable.

Marjane's return becomes the second half of the book. Unlike the prior book, this is no longer a cute girl rebelling against the scarf. This is a rebellion with severe stakes. Still, this is a story of a woman learning to remain true to herself while laying out the mistakes that she makes for examination. It's moving, angering and even funny. ( )

Picking up where her debut memoir-in-comics concluded; details the experiences of a young Iranian woman cast abroad by political turmoil in her native country.

While I loved reading Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood, I was not as impressed with Marjane Satrapi’s continued memoir, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. Part of the problem was that while I liked the young girl striving to find herself, I no longer liked the angst-ridden teenager narrating the story of her foolish mistakes.
More detailed review on my blog

The second in a two-part series, Persepolis 2 begins in Austria. It's 1984 and Marjane finds that life in secular Europe is not as wonderful as she had hoped. We follow Marjane through high school and college as she grows into a young adult. While dealing with many of the same themes as Persepolis, Satrapi's second book is much darker and cynical than the first. Through simple black and white illustrations, she relates the repression and chauvinism of life in Iran as well as her journey to find her place in the world. Persepolis is a wonderful example of the best in graphic memoir. ( )

two thousand words ( )

I started reading this book before bed one evening and quickly swept through a third of it before I realized I really ought to get some sleep. I finished it the next day. It's a quick and very enjoyable read. This second part of Satrapi's memoir deals with her teen and early adult years. I still enjoyed her perspective as an Iranian, but I found her perspective as a young adult even more compelling. It makes the world seem all the smaller to know that people from all nations all go through some of the same growth and personal development experiences. This is a charming memoir by a charming and intelligent woman. ( )

Even better than the first. Not sure if it's because Marjane's storytelling abilities had evolved so much more by this point, or because this volume - covering her teenage years and early adulthood - simply appealed to me more in terms of the personal discoveries involved. In any case, she's fantastic, and hers is an eye-opening and inspiring story. ( )

This is the second volume of Satrapi’s Persepolis series, and it spends the bulk of time telling the story of her time spent in an Austrian high school. Marjane’s parents send her abroad to escape the war in Iran, but her time in Europe is a special kind of exile.

Satrapi’s art is similarly good in this volume. The clean lines illustrate the story clearly and compliments the prose. It’s especially interesting to read her thoughts on her fellow students’ reactions to her. Being Iranian in western culture remains a social stigma, and Satrapi illustrates the painfulness of this stigmatization remarkably well.

Satrapi deserves her place alongside other notable historical comic artists including Joe Sacco and Art Spiegleman. Persepolis should be on your reading list. ( )

Marjane Satrapi returns with another harrowing, introspective, and funny graphic memoir in Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (2004). Picking up where Persepolis left off, one can forget any preconceived notions of the difficulties of adolescence. Sure Marji is facing mood swings, sudden changes in her body and unpopularity among her peers. She's also coming-of-age in a foreign country and she's all on her own. Her family is still in Iran in the midst of a bloody war and repressive regime.

Sent to live in Austria, she soon finds herself unwelcome at the home of relatives and in a convent where she was sent. So she finds a room to rent and begins study at a French Lycee. At school she befriends a group of punks and anarchists but never fits in even with these marginals. She slowly descends into loneliness, depression, drug abuse, and life on the streets of Vienna.

And so she returns home to her family and friends in Iran. Of course this is not the expected panacea as people of Iran have been living with war, repression and martyrdom. Marji has difficulty relating her own troubles in such context, and yet they are still vividly real to her. Always the rebellious youth, and even more reckless due to learning Western ways, she mouths off to authority but manages to scrape by without punishment. Her life becomes one of study by day and illegal parties by night. Despite the obstacles she is able to attend university for art studies and marry the man of her choice, although neither work out as well as she hopes. At the end, after her divorce and realizing once again that there's very little opportunity in Iran, Marji leaves Iran once again. ( )

A continuation of the story of a young Iranian girl struggling with her Iranian identity and the fundamentalist regime in 1970s and 1980s Iran. The illustrations grip the reader in the same vein as those of Art Spielgelman. Excellent story. (cw) ( )

In this sequel, Marjane lets readers back into her life in order to share the next portion of it. After conditions in Iran worsen, she moves to Austria. Follow Marjane's adventure as she adjusts to living abroad, crazy roommates, addictions, and not having a home. Will Marjane find a place to live in Austria? Or will she have to return home to Iran? ( )

http://www.iwilldare.com/2008/03/26/b... ( )

Persepolis 2 picks up where Persepolis left off, with teenaged Marjane newly arrived in Vienna to go to school. Although her parents had arranged for her to stay with friends, after 10 days she is packed off to a boarding house run by nuns. Marjane bounces from place to place and identity to identity, eventually ending up homeless on the streets of Vienna. When she finally returns home to Iran, she finds that her country has changed as much as she has.

Satrapi is as hard on herself as she is on those she feels wronged her throughout her teen and young adult years, including some shameful incidents she could have glossed over. In one story, Satrapi is out on the streets in Iran wearing lipstick, and when a carful of Guardians of the Revolution arrive, she fears they will arrest her for it. To distract them, she accuses a man on the street of saying something indecent to her, and they arrest him instead. She finds this funny, and shares the story with her boyfriend and then with her grandmother. It isn't until her grandmother yells at her and storms out that Satrapi really thinks about what she has done.

I have almost no experience with the graphic format--aside from Persepolis and Persepolis 2 I have read a few short pieces--so I'm not able to judge this book against others of its type. But if they work as well as Satrapi's does, I will be looking for more graphic works. In Persepolis 2, Satrapi uses the words to get across her story and her pictures to do the real talking. Satrapi's story as a troubled teen trying to find herself is compelling, but it is her images of life in Iran after the revolution that haunt.

(A minor note for parents: I took this volume out of the library, where it was shelved under YA (as were all their graphic-format books, apparently). Satrapi depicts sex and drug use frankly in this work, and I would hesitate to call it YA.) ( )

In Short: A deeply personal tale about the struggle to find out one's identity and trying to make a niche for oneself when they learn that there is no place that they will ever truly fit into.

http://tickettoanywhere.blogspot.com/... ( )

Persepolis 2 is, of course, the sequel to Persepolis which I read earlier this Summer. At the end of Persepolis, Marjane was being sent away from Iran by her parents to the safety and sanity of Vienna. In Persepolis 2 Marjane chronicles, with great honesty, her sojourn. She has been sent to live with an Aunt but soon finds herself living without the support of family or community. Marjane struggles to fit in and to not fit in...to be normal but to find that normal outside of the mainstream (where she REALLY doesn't fit in). She encounters situations and adopts habits of which even her liberal parents would not understand or approve. Looking for friendship and stability Marjane finds herself stumbling along believing the best of everyone until she can not mistake their racism or use of her for anything close to friendship. Betrayed and embarrased to admit her failure to her family, MArjane burns several bridges behind her and ends up living on the trains and streets for several monthes. She finally reaches out to her parents only to find that they have always had their arms and hearts open to her. Shaken by her failure in the West, Marjane returns to Iran. Always sassy, she returns to the veiled life a depressed woman. She attempts suicide, her anger and pain are very present. Failing at suicide, she feels a new lease to life and embarks on a dichotomy of veiled life and wild parties. She attends art school, marries, and divorces. Along the way she tries to retain the confidence that her parents had nurtured in her from her childhood; she argues for more appropriate clothing for female art students, talks back to religious enforcers who chastise her for the way her bottom bounces when she runs for a bus, and re-evaluates who she is and who she wants to be. This is all done against the backdrop of militant religious oppression the effects of which are show on Marjane and among her friends and family.

I gave copies of this book to a 12 year old girl, those women in their 30's-40's, and the couple in their 70's. I recommended the book to several men and women in their 40-50's. I read this book along with a 9 year old girl who read Persepolis; we were able to talk about the drug and sexual experiences as part of Marjane's whole story.

Marjane Satrapi's honest and compelling memoir of her young adult (15-22)years--continues the story where Persepolis left off. A 15 year old Setrapi arrives alone in Austria only to find herself a virtual refugee in a country she has never visited and does not speak the language. Lonely and frightened, and later depressed, Satrapi uses various coping mechanisms--lying, drugs, cynicism--that leave her feeling unhappy and further isolated. At 19, she flees Austria to return to Teheran, only to find herself a refugee (of sorts) in her own country. And things have changed in Iran; politcal repression and war have taken their toll; Even her parents seen to be cynical and have lost much hope. Where in the West she was defined entirely as an Iranian, in Iran she was defined almost entirely as a Westerner and her angst continues. A coming of age story filled with angst; a young woman trying to find her way under a repressive Islamic fundamentalist regime. Painfully honest and thought provoking, we hurt for Satrapi as she tries to discover what is important and who she wants to be. **must be paired with Persepolis I for full impact. I loved it. ( )