You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.4 AVERAGE
4.4 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Very beautiful- very close to home - very inspiring
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
I had heard of the movie Persepolis (although I had never seen it) and I was curious about the book when I stumbled on a copy someone had left in my new apartment. I didn't even know that the book reads like a comic strip, until I opened it and started reading and by that time, I had already been drawn into the story. Honestly, I was not expecting the story to be as powerful as it was.
This is one of the best books that I have read in recent memory, hands-down. The story is engaging, informative, poignant, deeply personal and funny, even as it deals with some really serious issues and stories from the life of the author. I read it in three days and I couldn't bring myself to put it down. I loved this book and I think everyone should read it. It makes me want to learn more about Iran and to finally read a book by Shirin Ebadi that has been sitting on my shelf for a couple months. I couldn't have stumbled upon a better read!
This is one of the best books that I have read in recent memory, hands-down. The story is engaging, informative, poignant, deeply personal and funny, even as it deals with some really serious issues and stories from the life of the author. I read it in three days and I couldn't bring myself to put it down. I loved this book and I think everyone should read it. It makes me want to learn more about Iran and to finally read a book by Shirin Ebadi that has been sitting on my shelf for a couple months. I couldn't have stumbled upon a better read!
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
«once again, i arrived at my usual conclusion: one must educate oneself»
opera imprescindibile
opera imprescindibile
I’ve wanted to read this for a while. I have a very good friend (and her sister and a past boyfriend) who are around Marjane’s age and lived through part of this (before ending up in America for much the same reason Marjane was sent to Europe). I’ve heard a lot of this first hand but I think my friends were gone before the roaming bands of extremists were in the streets pulling women in for wearing lipstick (to be fined or whipped). I’m glad of that.
But I’d also be lying to say I enjoyed this. Part of it was the subject matter which isn’t enjoyable but it’s important. Watching religious extremists (or should I just say extremists because Stalinism for example was far less about religion) strip away basic rights (especially women’s) executing anyone who dares to question them etc is not easy reading and it’s sure as hell more horrific to live through. That said, I had trouble empathizing with Marjane Satrapi and I feel bad saying that since this is a memoir. At one point her grandmother calls her a selfish bitch and that sort of summed it up for me. Even reminding myself that in this she is a child or teen (and in fact the worst of it was in her early twenties) and that those ages are hallmarked by self absorption and cluelessness, still didn’t make me warm up to her. I found her rude not blunt. The art was also not for me.
But the reason I gave it three stars rather than two (where my own personal enjoyment was) is that it is a valuable window into the early 80s and 90s which saw Iran go from a more modern, free thinking era (You can find women in mini-skirts in the 70s, having seen the pictures myself. You wouldn’t know it wasn’t Europe or America) and its headlong fall into oppression (especially of women) of twisting Islam (which like Christianity has strong themes of peace love and acceptable) into a tool to justify xenophobia and misogyny.
We witness Marjane and her family (who are quite liberal) loose family members, their street bombed until they finally send her away to Europe as a very young teen to try and save her from the wars. She doesn’t seem to fare much better there in isolation (and again a theme we still see today, the blaming of all Muslims for the actions of extremists). Marjane is intelligent though but homesick. Her return home didn’t go as she planned either.
Spoilers: her fall in Europe just seemed, as presented, a bad break up that left her so distraught she ran away and became homeless. Seems like an extreme overreaction even if we couple this with severe homesickness. And the moment that made her grandmother call her a bitch is probably what is going to stick with me more than anything else is when she was about to get caught for wearing lipstick again she tells this patrol that some stranger who is just sitting there said perverted things to her, knowing full well he’d be carted off to prison to be fined and/or beaten. She was laughing about her escape to her grandmother. Yeah, this is what I’ll remember but I guess I can give her credit for showing the good as well as the bad of herself. I’m glad I read this but no, I didn’t really like it.
But I’d also be lying to say I enjoyed this. Part of it was the subject matter which isn’t enjoyable but it’s important. Watching religious extremists (or should I just say extremists because Stalinism for example was far less about religion) strip away basic rights (especially women’s) executing anyone who dares to question them etc is not easy reading and it’s sure as hell more horrific to live through. That said, I had trouble empathizing with Marjane Satrapi and I feel bad saying that since this is a memoir. At one point her grandmother calls her a selfish bitch and that sort of summed it up for me. Even reminding myself that in this she is a child or teen (and in fact the worst of it was in her early twenties) and that those ages are hallmarked by self absorption and cluelessness, still didn’t make me warm up to her. I found her rude not blunt. The art was also not for me.
But the reason I gave it three stars rather than two (where my own personal enjoyment was) is that it is a valuable window into the early 80s and 90s which saw Iran go from a more modern, free thinking era (You can find women in mini-skirts in the 70s, having seen the pictures myself. You wouldn’t know it wasn’t Europe or America) and its headlong fall into oppression (especially of women) of twisting Islam (which like Christianity has strong themes of peace love and acceptable) into a tool to justify xenophobia and misogyny.
We witness Marjane and her family (who are quite liberal) loose family members, their street bombed until they finally send her away to Europe as a very young teen to try and save her from the wars. She doesn’t seem to fare much better there in isolation (and again a theme we still see today, the blaming of all Muslims for the actions of extremists). Marjane is intelligent though but homesick. Her return home didn’t go as she planned either.
Spoilers: her fall in Europe just seemed, as presented, a bad break up that left her so distraught she ran away and became homeless. Seems like an extreme overreaction even if we couple this with severe homesickness. And the moment that made her grandmother call her a bitch is probably what is going to stick with me more than anything else is when she was about to get caught for wearing lipstick again she tells this patrol that some stranger who is just sitting there said perverted things to her, knowing full well he’d be carted off to prison to be fined and/or beaten. She was laughing about her escape to her grandmother. Yeah, this is what I’ll remember but I guess I can give her credit for showing the good as well as the bad of herself. I’m glad I read this but no, I didn’t really like it.