The Complete Persepolis: Volumes 1 and 2 (Pantheon Graphic Library) Paperback – Illustrated, 30 Oct. 2007

Really enjoyed reading this book. It is easy to read (in a cartoon format) but it is also very serious, describing the life during and after the Iranian revolution through the eyes of a rebellious teenager.

Great read. Can teach you a lot about self worth, dealing with change and Iran. You will fall in love with the author.

Very insightful and honest portrait of the author's life. It was a very pleasurable read.

This was a fascinating read for both the story and the artistic drawings to enable us to understand the emotions in such a clear way. This is a vital read for anyone living outside of Iran.

I have really enjoyed reading this book, it is a graphic novel detailing hardships and issues for a young girl growing up in Iran. It details war, conflicts and feminist values and I feel likelihood learned a lot by reading the book

Really inspiring read

Review: Marjane Satrapi grew up in Terahn, Iran, during the Islamic Revolution. Later, she is sent to Austria, on her own, for her own safety, and the second half of the graphic novel tells us the story of her return to Iran after four years of a totally different life.I don’t normally read autobiographies, but I’ve heard excellent things about this. I wasn’t disappointed.A bit at the start is the Iranian war in graphic novel form, which is useful and really interesting because history lessons don't really teach anything outside of the Western world so having it all put like this is really good for setting up the world Marji lives in, as well as generally expanding world history knowledge.The thing about Persepolis is the way it presents it. I like history, but i'm bad at remembering it if it's just a list of dates and events and figures. The difference with Persepolis here is that it shows a different view on it. Marji is ten when her school gets gender segregation and the girls are forced to wear veils, and Marji's young age changes the way you see everything. It adds questions, thoughts, and makes you wonder and understand even more.You get to know Marji really well. You share all her ups and downs, all the hopes and aspirations and sadness and loss. You see her childhood and her liberal family and everything they go through. The second part, set during her time in Austria and her return to Tehran, shows her doing some things that may not be the best decision, but she learns from them. I also liked some of the other characters-Marji's grandmother especially.Overall: Strength 4.5, more a 5 tea to an informative and powerful graphic novel.

Unlike some reviewers of "Persepolis", I came to it as someone who has read quite a lot of graphic novels. I wouldn't call myself an expert on the form, but I know my way around. You still get literary journalists complaining when graphic novels get nominated for literary prizes, on the grounds that a graphic novel by definition is a lesser artistic achievement than a novel that consists entirely of words. Many commentators seem to believe that graphic works are not, and can never be, as profound and as intelligent and as moving as pure text.In the last fifteen or so years, a number of books have been published which by virtue of their sheer excellence are powerful rebuttals to that idea. Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's "From Hell" is one (forget the movie). Chris Ware's "Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth" is another. One of the greatest fictional works of the last twenty years is Neil Gaiman's extraordinary epic "The Sandman".For those that are uncomfortable with fiction, there is an entire genre of graphic books that recount and reimagine actual experiences: Guy Delisle's "Pyongyang" and Joe Sacco's "Palestine" are outstanding examples. Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" is another. Its success is well-deserved.Satrapi's graphic style is simple, but it's not a fake simplicity. Her drawings of the guardians of the Iranian revolution, for example, are stereotyped, in that she draws them all the same way: cap pulled down over the eyes, stiff jacket, bushy beard, rifle. But in doing so, she successfully conveys a sense of how stereotyped and unimaginative the guardians themselves are. She makes them look like robots because it's part of her overall artistic purpose.When she wants to be eloquent, she is fully capable of it. One of the most touching sequences is the one when the heroine Marjane's kindly parents travel to Turkey and smuggle back forbidden records and posters of Western pop music; the teenage Marjane is stopped in the street by a female guardian and accused of listening to such decadent filth, and only manages to escape punishment by lying through her teeth and bursting into tears. As soon as she gets home, all she wants to do is go to her room and dance furiously but awkwardly to Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" - the final frame of her doing so is deeply moving.The whole book is among other things a fragmentary social history of urban Iran from 1978 to 1994 or so. It's a fascinating, brilliantly told story and it's hard to see how it could have been done any better by doing it entirely in print; the young Marjane's fantasies of being a prophet, for example, gain enormously by being visualised. As she gets older, the book becomes more realistic.I recommend this to anyone. The graphic novel - in this case, the graphic memoir or graphic autobiographical novel - has truly come of age.