Title: Persepolis 2: The Story of a ReturnAuthor: Marjane Satrapi
I loved Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis when I read it a few years ago. Persepolis 2 takes place where the first graphic memoir left off, with a teenage Marjane being sent from Iran to Germany, where they hope she'll be safe during a time of political upheaval. While the original Persepolis was dark, with war and fear and death always looming close to the surface (as I'm sure it must for people who live in countries like Iran), it was also told from the point of view of a child, so there was still some of a sense of wonder as Marjane learned to live in her fractured world. In Persepolis 2, she's mostly grown up, and while the story is just as entertaining, it's also darker-- she lives on the streets for a time as a teenager, feels her alienation as a woman without a country very powerfully, worries about not being wanted anywhere, marries the wrong man, and generally feels pessimistic about her future. While Satrapi presents the story of her life convincingly, it's not something I relate to easily since my life has been perfectly conflict-free in comparison. It's interesting that this book (which I read about two months ago) only took me a couple of hours to read, yet it sticks in my mind better than many novels I've read since. Maybe I should stop discouraging my kids from reading picture books instead of chapter books!
1 comment:
I liked the first volume better, but think both are fabulous. You really should watch the movie made from the books--I was skeptical at first, but it really was one of my favorite movies from last year. The movie includes material from both volumes because they were originally published as one book in France. I think we got it from Netflix.
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