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Loading... Persepolis (edition 2004)by Marjane Satrapi, Taina Aarne ((Käänt.))
Work InformationPersepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Hardship forces people to change. The author walks us along the path of political turbulence in Iran and shows us how different people react when everything around them turns upside down. Some adapt by throwing away their values and becoming more like the ruling power. Others try to fight it and get imprisoned, tortured, exiled, killed. And then there are the survivors who combine adaptation with resistance: the little girl and her parents are among them. Through the eyes of a little girl it is terrifying to see how kind intelligent loving people have to bend and twist to the destructive whims of the powerful. For me this was an emotional rollercoaster. Hope, despair, tenderness, rage, love, fear. I kept silently shouting at the characters: "Why are you doing this? Don't you see you are hurting others?" A graphic novel describing how it was like growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. This book was fascinating. I'm not a graphic novel fan, but I'm glad I made the exception here. I do, however, feel again the stark reality that I am completely ignorant and privileged. And I don't know what to do about it, other than learn more. This book was a good start in that direction. Each time I read a graphic memoir, I think how marvelously this genre and medium complement one another. Persepolis is fascinating examination of the Islamic Revolution and its consequences in Iran through the eyes of a child raised in a modern Iranian home. It's both an interesting story and an educational opportunity to see this important part of history through Persian eyes. It's a sober reminder of humanity's inhumanity to read parallels to Atwood's Handmaid's Tale and other dystopian tales in non-fiction. One can readily forget that the fiction authors have more than adequate inspiration from real-life events. It's good, emotional. The art style is excellent, very clear, minimalistic, strong lines blocks of black etc. It's a pleasure to look at it and it makes the few horrible scenes it illustrates (eg a dismembered body) all the more shocking. The writing is good too and emotional and gets across the impact of living on the edge well. It's v personal and keyed to her very particular experience and don't expect like in depth analysis of her family's existence, the causes of the revolution or whatever. It's great
Satrapi’s style is almost primitive, consisting of flat figures with simple shapes and features. It’s more sophisticated than a child’s creations, but it superficially resembles them, an approach that supports the presentation of memories from that period of life. Marjane Satrapi's ''Persepolis'' is the latest and one of the most delectable examples of a booming postmodern genre: autobiography by comic book. Belongs to SeriesPersepolis (Omnibus 1-2) Is contained inContainsAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
An intelligent and outspoken only child, Satrapi--the daughter of radical Marxists and the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor--bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane's child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a stunning reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, through laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)741.5944The arts Graphic arts and decorative arts Drawing & drawings Cartoons, Caricatures, Comics Collections European France & MonacoLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Persepolis is a YA graphic autobiography describing the author’s childhood in Iran during the turbulent times of the Islamic Revolution, and the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. The book shows us life under the religious fundamentalist regime with restrictions of personal freedom, compulsory veil-wearing and the death of hundreds of people suspected of dissent. Marjane’s family are liberal thinkers but soon begin to live in fear as people around them are executed or tortured, the single women being forced to undergo a “marriage” to one of the guards before execution as it is illegal to kill a virgin.
The book takes a teenager’s perspective but is witty, cynical and poignant by turns. It gives us a glimpse into the political climate and also family life in 1980s Iran. ( )