bansrithakkar's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliant!
Deeply moving. Funny, harrowing and heartbreaking all at the same time.
Deeply moving. Funny, harrowing and heartbreaking all at the same time.
kurtwombat's review against another edition
5.0
This belongs among the elite graphic novels along side MAUS & A CONTRACT WITH GOD (and possibly the LONE WOLF AND CUB series as a whole). Like MAUS the engaging art work draws you in allowing tragedy to rise around you like a tide that could easily swallow you. Like A CONTRACT WITH GOD, religion can be what holds you down by the feet as that very water rises. Like only PERSEPOLIS, a personal coming of age story amidst a chaotic social uprising—where the author doesn’t just become a static survivor adult but remains a strong willed yearning individual. That transition to adulthood is the most fascinating part of the book. The child running from the day to day threat of history is an amazing story—but the hard edged often uncomfortable adult depicted for the book’s second half is mostly what I remember. Both parts together create a compelling portrait of the author.
bookscreentalk's review against another edition
4.0
Coming of age story of a girl who grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
The illustrations are simple and easy to understand, Marjane tells her story vividly.
Its an attempt to show how a country once so prosperous and rich, has become a religiously controlled body, and how its people had come to terms with the changes overnight.
Book wasn't ask nostalgic as I thought it would be, has some very disturbing imagery on war.
Overall an engaging read
The illustrations are simple and easy to understand, Marjane tells her story vividly.
Its an attempt to show how a country once so prosperous and rich, has become a religiously controlled body, and how its people had come to terms with the changes overnight.
Book wasn't ask nostalgic as I thought it would be, has some very disturbing imagery on war.
Overall an engaging read
dels_bookmarks's review against another edition
4.0
I am SO glad I read this book and am so happy I included a graphic novel in my reading challenge, as this is something I would never have picked up previously.
I was recommend this after reading They Call Us Enemy last month, and really, this book walked so that book could run.
It too is a graphic autobiography told from childhood to adulthood, with extreme things going on around them. Both have managed to capture a child’s voice and world view. In Persepolis, this voice changes and grows with the author through the story, rather than reflecting back from alter in life.
It follows Marji, from 10 years old in 1980 Iran when the veil became mandatory, and through her being sent to Austria by her parents when she was 14 to 18. The hardship of being alone in a foreign place through such influential years of teenage hood takes focus over what is happening back home, until she returns home to the high control and struggles with that too. Through romantic relationships, personal and political rebellions, and conversations with her parents, uncles, and grandmother, we see positive and negative reflections of herself, the stark difference between private and public (high control) life, and a person who truly feels and thinks deeply.
I did have to look up a few of the political factions to understand who was who as I knew very little about Iran during this time. But that all helped me understand the recent protests more.
The art is deceptively simple, black and white line drawings, nearly exclusively only of people, but still evokes a lot of feeling although might not be considered beautiful.
As far as I can tell it was first published in French in serial in 2000, and later translated into English and compiled into a book. I don’t know enough about graphic novels to know if this was ground-breaking or influential, but I suspect both.
I was recommend this after reading They Call Us Enemy last month, and really, this book walked so that book could run.
It too is a graphic autobiography told from childhood to adulthood, with extreme things going on around them. Both have managed to capture a child’s voice and world view. In Persepolis, this voice changes and grows with the author through the story, rather than reflecting back from alter in life.
It follows Marji, from 10 years old in 1980 Iran when the veil became mandatory, and through her being sent to Austria by her parents when she was 14 to 18. The hardship of being alone in a foreign place through such influential years of teenage hood takes focus over what is happening back home, until she returns home to the high control and struggles with that too. Through romantic relationships, personal and political rebellions, and conversations with her parents, uncles, and grandmother, we see positive and negative reflections of herself, the stark difference between private and public (high control) life, and a person who truly feels and thinks deeply.
I did have to look up a few of the political factions to understand who was who as I knew very little about Iran during this time. But that all helped me understand the recent protests more.
The art is deceptively simple, black and white line drawings, nearly exclusively only of people, but still evokes a lot of feeling although might not be considered beautiful.
As far as I can tell it was first published in French in serial in 2000, and later translated into English and compiled into a book. I don’t know enough about graphic novels to know if this was ground-breaking or influential, but I suspect both.
streetartist's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75