Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: The Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi

The Story: This is an autobiographical graphic novel of a teenage girl growing up in Iran during the revolution of ‘79.  There was a lot about death and war and the veil, and tough stuff, but there were also big chunks about crushes, normal teenage rebellion, secret parties and American pop culture.

While she was still in high school,  Marjane’s parents send her to Austria to continue her schooling in a safer environment.  She met semi-crazy anarchist friends and kind of accidentally joined the punk scene.  While she was in Austria, she sort of lied about her heritage and morphed into a new person.  There is a section of the book that covers a visit from her mom while Marjane is still living in Austria.  This is one of the only times that her “two worlds” meet, and it was one of the more powerful parts of the book.

The book continues up through Iran’s war with Iraq, and goes as far as the early 1990’s.  There is a lot of political history going on, side by side with Marjane growing up.

What I Thought: I promise: last graphic novel for awhile!  I had just picked this up on my graphic novel binge because I’ve heard such good things about it and decided to read it before my books were due back to the library.

I’m oh, so glad that I did.

I have read a handful of books about this time period, most notably Reading Lolita in Tehran , that have really touched my heart.  It is just hard for me to believe that these things are not ancient history.  They happened (are happening) within our lifetime.  That is shocking to me.

This novel works for a couple reasons.  One is the pure curiosity that we, as westerners, share regarding stuff that is happening in that part of the world.  It is in our faces every day but the truth of it is just unimaginable to us.  But, on the other hand, this is a universal “coming of age” story.  I found myself relating with a lot of what the main character was going through.  I loved her obsession with pop culture, and her thoughts on boys, and her anger at her parents.  She is in this war-torn country but what she wants (freedom, a boyfriend, love, to look cute) are just the exact things that American teenagers experience, and for me that made this book very powerful.

Conclusion: Read this.  If you have never read a graphic novel, I do not hesitate to say make this your first one.