Persepolis

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another nice read of the year - Persepolis!

It's a story of a girl who originally belonged to Iran. The protagonist narrates the story herself.  She describes the various phases she lived through. Before 1979, Iran had the culture of open minds. It was only 1979 when women there had to start wearing veils. And that's because of their government of that times. Then onwards, Iran's revolution reversed, against the will of many Iranians. What all we know about Taliban and his indoctrinations, were imposed in Iran then onwards. It's good to read this phase of transition.

This girl - Marjane Satrapi who was the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor, belonged to an open-minded, rich and well-educated family. They did the demonstrations against the government, but with no fruitful results. At the same time, Iraq attacked Iran and situation in Iran went even worse. Iran also started defending and the war started. Iranians were already not happy about the new government and its laws and then with the war they were completely devastated. When Marjane turned 14, her parents sent her to Austria to keep her away from all the devastation. Within those 4 years, Marjane witnessed many deaths including one of her martyr uncle and her close friend - neighbour.

Next part of the book talks about her life in Austria which was not so good. In spite of having lived in conservative country, she dissolved herself completely in the western culture. She couldn't stand in there more and hence returned to her home country at the age of 18.

Next, in last part of the book, Marjane talks about how she made the come back to life and tried to survive in Iran again. This part also gives the idea of her freedom amidst all the restrictions she was burdened by the new Islamic Revolution. This freedom was granted by her parents. She educated herself more, married, divorced and finally she left Iran again as it was not the place to live in peacefully. There were no wars, she was not a kid anymore, but still she left the country. There the book ends!

Overall, the book is riveting. The writer is a good narrator. She has illustrated her feelings perfectly through the text as well as the pictures. I forgot to mention that it's a graphical novel. The pictures around the text are perfectly detailed to give you the idea of her state of mind and how exactly she perceived things.


Few of the incidences, really touched. When Marjane was a kid, she imagined talking to God and the way she talked, it reminded me of my childhood. She talked to God as if he is her real father. She got angry with him, she fought with him. Not only this, she also imagined how God would look like. And to tell you frankly my God also looked like hers. Maybe, all kids have common fantasies.

Nice Read! I'll give it 4 stars.

After reading this book, now I feel, even if we don't think about money every moment, still paisa bolta hai! It's money that talks. It gives you freedom to take decisions, freedom to change your life. If Marjane's parents were not rich, could she have managed to get away of Iran's culture? It's said that with money, you can't buy everything; but really, you can buy the freedom at least.



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