Comic Book Review: PERSEPOLIS
February 19th, 2012
recently asked me, “If you could talk to an Iranian man or woman, what would you say to them?” and I replied almost immediately, “You and I have more in common with each other than either of us has with our own government.” To be fair, I got the idea from a poll done by Rasmussen which indicated that liberal civilians and conservative civilians had more in common with each other than with politicians of either party. But then someone pointed out that my answer was eerily similar to a famous quote from Iranian graphic novelist Marjane Strapi who said:
The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.
Wow. Just wow! I was utterly blown away by this. So, I knew I had to post a review of her most famous graphic novel, .
Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s autobiography and it was so engrossing I plowed through it in about two days (which is not as impressive as it sounds considering it’s a comic book). It was originally published in French and won the Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France, but it’s since been republished in English (obviously because I read it).
Satrapi grew up in Tehran with parents active in the Iranian communist movement prior to the Iranian Revolution. As a child she witnessed the fall of the Shah, the rise of Rohollah Khomeini and the early years of the Iran-Iraq War when an Iraqi air raid hit her neighbor’s house with a Scud missile killing her friend.
She left Iran to seek a secular education in Austria and got more than she bargained for. Disillusioned with the West she returns to Iran to find a country destroyed by war with Iraq, and overrun by fundamentalists. This is by far my favorite moment in the book.
She struggles with being treated like a third-worlder in Austria, then being treated like a European in Iran. It’s hilarious every step of the way, and quite educational if you don’t know anything about the History of Iran (come on America… we all know you’re ignorant of every culture but Hollywood). I highly recommend this to anyone. It’s a big book, but it’s a short read. And for those for whom that’s still too much… they made a movie out of it in 2007.
And don’t forget to visit our official website to learn more about the Silver Circle Movie:http://SilverCircleMovie.com
