Persepolis

I played hooky from school today…I've got a pretty awful cough and a sore throat. So I thought today would be a good day for blogging.

In the meantime, last week I was reading a copy of “Stop Smiling” magazine when I stumbled upon an interview with Marjane Satrapi about her graphic novel “Persepolis”. So Paul was sweet enough to download it for me and I have spent the last 24 hours reading it feverishly. It’s absolutely wonderful.

The novel is basically a memoir about her extraordinary life which is separated into two parts. The first part takes place while she is very young and living in Iran with her family. The second part takes place while she is a teenager living in Austria and her later return to Iran to be reunited with her family.

Much of her book revolves around her liberal minded family who are activists and avid protesters in Iran. Many members of her family and friends are sent to prison or executed for being communists. Other members of her family flee to Russia. While her parents and family members are inspiring and her relationship with them is really touching, she still allows you to see their imperfections and imbedded hypocrisy.

She does a really beautiful job of interweaving her personal experience with the complex history and conflict of her homeland. Coming from someone who has little to no knowledge about the history of Iran, I found the politics and complications of the country easily accessible. Much like the simple black and white illustrations, her writing is very simple and to the point. Yet, she’s still able touch on complicated themes like isolation, borderlands, and assimilation. I found myself thinking back to discussions I had in my Latina Literature class where we spent a lot of time discussing the meaning of borders and the feeling of belonging, along with complications of embracing parts of one culture while still assimilating to another. Iran is often depicted the “axis of evil” by our own country, and I felt like she made a point to show that you can’t always characterize historical disputes as good versus evil. There’s always a grey area, and it’s important to recognize that much of the media only portrays one side of the story. While she doesn’t necessarily portray Iran in a positive light, she lets you have a sneak peak at people working to make it a better place, as well as provide insight as to what role the western part of world has played in it’s problems.

A large portion of the second half of the novel takes place in Austria where she is estranged from her parents. She recognizes the opportunity and freedoms she has there, but she also misses some of the values found in her own culture. She winds up changing in such a way that she never fully accepts until the end of the novel. She knows her culture is oppressive, but she feels this great burden of guilt that in some way she is betraying or denying her own heritage. She winds up assimilating to some degree, but realizes she’ll never fully be accepted in her new culture. In the end, when she returns to Iran, she comes into a further realization that she isn’t really accepted in her original country either as she’s been tainted by the west.

Everything about the book is incredibly interesting. I felt like I learned so much. But it’s also great entertainment. Her life is thrilling and the novel is touching and at times heartbreaking. I found myself with the warm and fuzzies and at other times (I hate to admit it) a little blurry eyed, but I’m a sap sometimes. I’d recommend the book to anyone and everyone. It’s a really easy read…I’ll give my personal guarantee you’ll be hooked in the first 5 minutes.