Word: satrapi
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Dates: during 2003-2003
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What does it mean when a comic book does a better job conveying the true predicament of Iran than the leaders of the free world and the best efforts of its free press? Perhaps it means that Marjane Satrapi, the author of the autobiography Persepolis (Jonathan Cape; 153 pages), is not distracted by the contradictions that riddle Iran. In black-and-white ink drawings, she presents the memories of her childhood - the repressive morality police marching the streets, the Iraqi F-14 jets streaking past the window panes, and the parties, intellectual debates and love stories carried on behind closed...
Probably I will not see Iran the way I want to see it in my lifetime. But so what? — MARJANE SATRAPI...
...Persepolis is told through the eyes of a child. And that is the ideal way for the uninitiated reader to absorb the whiplash of Iran's history. Wide-eyed, Satrapi as a young girl demands an explanation for the crimes of the Shah, and then for the violence of the revolution, and finally for the bombing of her neighborhood during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. The country - and Satrapi and her family - career from one ideology to the next. She is taught from first grade on that God chose the Shah; every time his name is mentioned...
...artwork in "Persepolis" has a simplicity that resonates with having a child as its main character. Unlike the complex nuances of the story, the artistic details are minimal and shading is non-existent. Instead the artwork of "Persepolis" takes on a wood-cut look. Satrapi makes wonderful use of solid, high-contrast black shapes. Veteran readers of quality comix will immediately think of David B.'s masterful "Epileptic I" (see TIME.comix review) of last year. Both books are childhood memoirs done in similar styles, though David B. has the greater graphic skill. In fact both authors are part...
...Thanks to its timeliness and its subject, Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" makes for one of the most vital and surprising reads of the season. That she did it as a graphic memoir says a lot about the growth of this art-form. You could, and should, easily get a younger teenager to read it. Sometimes funny and sometimes sad but always sincere and revealing, "Persepolis" will be one of the best graphic books of the year...