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erikariehigano22's review against another edition
5.0
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis has wrenched my heart once again in the sequel of her first book. Satrapi brings us to her life abroad away from home in Vienna as she navigated puberty, adolescence, independence and adjusting to her new home.
Some of the panels really hit close to home for me. This book really divulges the migrant experience. I was older than Satrapi when I left home to a foreign country for a supposedly better life. Yet all the dialogue she presented in the book really resonated with me. Already early in the story I knew this book will hold a special place in my heart.
The realisations she had when she went home to Iran, and the psychological issues she endured on her conflict between her beliefs and conforming to the society at her home that only continues to strangle her. This book really made a profound effect to me as a migrant, it felt as if I saw myself in Satrapi. If only I was as courageous and strong as her.
Even with the bittersweet end that she accepted the cruel fact that her home was not the place for her to prosper, it did allowed her to find herself after being lost physically and mentally. And I think that's the most beautiful lesson in the book.
I highly recommend this graphic novel. I am now looking forward to purchasing my own copy of the series for my personal shelf soon.
Some of the panels really hit close to home for me. This book really divulges the migrant experience. I was older than Satrapi when I left home to a foreign country for a supposedly better life. Yet all the dialogue she presented in the book really resonated with me. Already early in the story I knew this book will hold a special place in my heart.
The realisations she had when she went home to Iran, and the psychological issues she endured on her conflict between her beliefs and conforming to the society at her home that only continues to strangle her. This book really made a profound effect to me as a migrant, it felt as if I saw myself in Satrapi. If only I was as courageous and strong as her.
Even with the bittersweet end that she accepted the cruel fact that her home was not the place for her to prosper, it did allowed her to find herself after being lost physically and mentally. And I think that's the most beautiful lesson in the book.
I highly recommend this graphic novel. I am now looking forward to purchasing my own copy of the series for my personal shelf soon.
drivera55's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Racism, War, Islamophobia, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Torture, Colonisation, Sexism, Genocide, and Misogyny
Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Homophobia
lyriclorelei's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
"When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection, our fear paralyzes us."
This volume is subtitled very well.
This volume is subtitled very well.
tommy1233's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
rstacey2000's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
trin's review against another edition
5.0
Rougher and less focused than [book: Persepolis], the first half of this volume focuses on Satrapi's life in Austria where her parents sent to be safe and to go to school. Though away from the war in Iran, she still stuggles, both with others' treatment of her as a foreigner and with growing up alone and very isolated. After a period in which she actually ends up living on the street, she returns gratefully to Iran; even if the country is still messed up, she has her family there. This is where the book really picked up for me, and the second half is as good as anything in the first volume. Satrapi talks about how different the internal world of Iranians is/was than the external: outside you have to appear to be conservative and pious, while at home people would hold wild parties, even orgies. "The more time passed," she writes, "the more I became conscious of the contrast between the official representation of my country and the real life of the people, the one that went on behind the walls." I love how Satrapi reinforces the fact that everyone, everywhere is essentially human—something I think the current American administration would like us to forget.
Not quite as good as Persepolis, but still excellent.
Not quite as good as Persepolis, but still excellent.
whereisalina's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
zmoats's review against another edition
5.0
I mistakenly thought Satrapi's ability to sustain the interest of the first part of the memoir would wear off as we take the journey with her out of childhood into adulthood - I was dead wrong. In fact, I do not hesitate to say that this is a perfect follow-up to the first book. While the story itself of Persepolis 2 may not be as tight as the it's predecessor, it more than makes up that ground as Satrapi turns further inward toward her own feelings and thoughts. There were also numerous panels in this book whose illustrations I still find myself imagining. The connections Satrapi draws to the form of the first novel reminded me of how movies use similar images to form connections between two disparate moments in time. It is a technique best used sparingly and subtlety - both of which Satrapi refines. Needless to say, you should absolutely give both Persepolis 1 and 2 a chance, regardless of how you feel about graphic novels.
outoftheblue14's review against another edition
5.0
I was awaiting eagerly the possibility to read Persepolis 2: Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi, the second volume of her autobiography in the form of graphic novels.
In Persepolis, we left Marjane as she was about to leave Iran for Austria to attend a French secondary school. As Persepolis 2 opens, she has just arrived in Austria, where she lives first in a boarding house run by Catholic nuns and them in a flat shared with other eight gay men. Marjane feels uneasy in Austria, but manages to find a niche for herself with friends and acquaintances who share her feelings about their place in the world.
After a series of unfortunate events cause her to live in the streets for three months, at the age of nineteen Marjane decides to go back to her native Iran. There, she has to wear a headscarf and accept a society strictly divided by sex and ruled by fundamentalism. However, guided by the example of her strong grandmother, she starts to test the limits of that fundamentalism, both in the streets and in the classrooms of the art school she attends. She comes to understand that "one person leaving her house while asking herself, 'is my veil in place?' no longer asks herself 'where is my freedom of speech?'". After marrying the wrong man and giving up her dream to find a place for herself in Iranian society, she decides to leave Iran for good.
I found the second part of Marjane Satrapi's autiobiography in form of a graphic novel to be even more entertaining and pleasant to read than the first one, probably because of the emphasis given to more "adult" themes.
In Persepolis, we left Marjane as she was about to leave Iran for Austria to attend a French secondary school. As Persepolis 2 opens, she has just arrived in Austria, where she lives first in a boarding house run by Catholic nuns and them in a flat shared with other eight gay men. Marjane feels uneasy in Austria, but manages to find a niche for herself with friends and acquaintances who share her feelings about their place in the world.
After a series of unfortunate events cause her to live in the streets for three months, at the age of nineteen Marjane decides to go back to her native Iran. There, she has to wear a headscarf and accept a society strictly divided by sex and ruled by fundamentalism. However, guided by the example of her strong grandmother, she starts to test the limits of that fundamentalism, both in the streets and in the classrooms of the art school she attends. She comes to understand that "one person leaving her house while asking herself, 'is my veil in place?' no longer asks herself 'where is my freedom of speech?'". After marrying the wrong man and giving up her dream to find a place for herself in Iranian society, she decides to leave Iran for good.
I found the second part of Marjane Satrapi's autiobiography in form of a graphic novel to be even more entertaining and pleasant to read than the first one, probably because of the emphasis given to more "adult" themes.