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_askthebookbug 's review for:
Chicken with Plums
by Marjane Satrapi
// Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi
It just took me one book to fall in love with Satrapi's wit. Sometime last year, I breezed through Persepolis. Then I had this irresistible urge to read her Embroideries and so I did just that. Fast forward to January this year, I accidentally stumbled upon Chicken with Plums. I only had to see her name on the cover to bring it home. Do I sound like her ardent fan? Who wouldn't be, after reading what she writes? This one was no exception.
Chicken with Plums is about Satrapi's great-uncle, Nasser Ali Khan, who was once a famous tar player. The concept of this mini graphic memoir is as intriguing as the title itself. She doesn't talk much about his fame or how he came to be so popular. Instead she writes about how Nasser decided to die in 1958 when his beloved tar broke.
The story takes place in eight days. Eight days before Nasser breathes his last. With his tar broken, he loses every reason to live and while his wife and brother try their best to rouse him from this depth of grief, he barely listens to them. Satrapi gives us just a brief glimpse about what went on in her great-uncle's mind during his last days, one of the highlights of him thinking about his mother's chicken with plums dish. He watches his life flash by his eyes in slow motion. He dreams of his first love and the circumstances behind marrying his wife and also of Sophia Lauren.
There's not much to learn from the book because it's hardly 96 pages in length but it does its job. Satrapi's usual style of no-nonsense writing tinged with dark humour was a delight to read. This isn't a complete memoir because she doesn't delve too deep into his life but rather gives a surface view of this music legend's death.
I read this within an hour and loved every bit of it. And now, I must go and hunt for her other books.
It just took me one book to fall in love with Satrapi's wit. Sometime last year, I breezed through Persepolis. Then I had this irresistible urge to read her Embroideries and so I did just that. Fast forward to January this year, I accidentally stumbled upon Chicken with Plums. I only had to see her name on the cover to bring it home. Do I sound like her ardent fan? Who wouldn't be, after reading what she writes? This one was no exception.
Chicken with Plums is about Satrapi's great-uncle, Nasser Ali Khan, who was once a famous tar player. The concept of this mini graphic memoir is as intriguing as the title itself. She doesn't talk much about his fame or how he came to be so popular. Instead she writes about how Nasser decided to die in 1958 when his beloved tar broke.
The story takes place in eight days. Eight days before Nasser breathes his last. With his tar broken, he loses every reason to live and while his wife and brother try their best to rouse him from this depth of grief, he barely listens to them. Satrapi gives us just a brief glimpse about what went on in her great-uncle's mind during his last days, one of the highlights of him thinking about his mother's chicken with plums dish. He watches his life flash by his eyes in slow motion. He dreams of his first love and the circumstances behind marrying his wife and also of Sophia Lauren.
There's not much to learn from the book because it's hardly 96 pages in length but it does its job. Satrapi's usual style of no-nonsense writing tinged with dark humour was a delight to read. This isn't a complete memoir because she doesn't delve too deep into his life but rather gives a surface view of this music legend's death.
I read this within an hour and loved every bit of it. And now, I must go and hunt for her other books.