Saturday, February 2, 2008

Persepolis

This post is a little different from the last two posts. My inspiration is from a book. I was introduced by one of my professors to a graphic novel called "Persepolis". Within a day, I finished the first volume and craved to read the second. Within the next couple of days, I was able to lay my hands on the second volume and finished that, too, in one sitting.

"Persepolis" is an autobiography of Marjane Satrapi about her childhood in Iran during the 1970's and the 1980's. Satrapi's progressive family was involved with the communist and socialist movement in Iran, and "Persepolis" describes her experiences during her stay as she witnessed the corruption and oppression in the Iranian government. At the age of 14, she was sent to Vienna, Austria, because her parents feared for her safety and her future. But she soon returned to Iran for college and struggled to balance the two cultures in which she grew up. Satrapi currently resides in Paris where she launched her career.

"Persepolis" is a beautifully written and drawn graphic novel. It documents the life of an outspoken and hard-headed child during the revolution very well. I highly recommend having a go with it. It's very humorous and touching. Additionally, this novel set has recently been turned into a feature-length movie and is being shown at selected theaters around the country.

2 comments:

Shayni said...

Yeah, I would love to read this.

So, she is inspirational because of the way she has dealt with balancing her two cultures?

trang said...

I didn't want to write much more because that would give the book away, but she is inspirational in that she uses her skill to make people aware of the situation that was going on in Iran. I mean, I really had no clue before I read this. I can lend you the first book, but I need to go buy the second book. My professor promised to lend it out to other students in the class.