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Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood [Paperback]

Marjane Satrapi
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Book Description

30 Jun 2004 Persepolis
A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year”
A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 153 pages
  • Publisher: Pantheon Books; Reprint edition (30 Jun 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 037571457X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375714573
  • Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 1.3 x 22.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 334,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is an exemplary autobiographical graphic novel, in the tradition of Art Spiegelman's classic Maus. Set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, it follows the young Satrapi, six-year-old daughter of two committed and well-to-do Marxists. As she grows up, she witnesses first-hand the effects that the revolution and the war with Iraq have on her home, family and school.

Like Maus, the main strength of Persepolis is its ability to make the political personal. Told through the eyes of a child (as reflected in Satrapi's simplistic yet expressive black-and-white artwork), the story shows how young Marjane learns about her family history and how it is entwined with the history of Iran, and watches her liberal parents cope with a fundamentalist regime that gets increasingly rigid as it gains more power. Outspoken and intelligent, Marjane chafes at Iran's increasingly conservative interpretation of Islamic law, especially as she grows into a bright and independent teenager. Throughout, Marjane remains a hugely likeable young woman

Persepolis gives the reader a snapshot of daily life in a country struggling with an internal cultural revolution and a bloody war, but within an intensely personal context. It's a very human history, beautifully and sympathetically told. --Robert Burrow --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

This touching, funny, illuminating memoir deserves a much wider audience. (Kate Figes Guardian )

The magic of Marjane Satrapi's work is that it can condense a whole country's tragedy into one poignant, funny scene after another. (Natasha Walter Independent on Sunday )

Persepolis is a stylish, clever and moving weapon of mass destruction. (David Jenkins Sunday Telegraph )

Marjane Satrapi's books are a revelation. They're funny, they're sad, they're hugely readable. Most importantly, they remind you that the media sometimes tell you the facts but rarely tell you the truth. In one afternoon Persepolis will teach you more about Iran, about being an outsider, about being human, than you could learn from a thousand hours of television documentaries and newspaper articles. And you will remember it for a very long time. (Mark Haddon )

I cannot praise enough Marjane Satrapi's moving account of growing up as a spirited young girl in revolutionary and war-time Iran. Persepolis is disarming and often humorous but ultimately it is shattering. (Joe Sacco ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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First Sentence
This is me when I was 10 years old. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars buy it! its fab! 9 Jan 2004
Format:Hardcover
I really really loved this book, which I bought because of a couple of glowing reviews in newspapers. Its so good, I'd say you're really missing out if you haven't read it. Everyone I buy it for ends up buying it for their friends too. Basically its the story of a very precocious girl living in Tehran with liberal secular parents and how they live through the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, but its not heavy-going despite that. Its full of both funny and poignant moments, and the author is fairly frank about how as a child she would cause her folks loads of stress. The way she works the story between the words and images is wonderful. Buy it! You'll love it. I'm reserving the next volume right now.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Intimate and Disarming View from Within 25 July 2004
By Orome
Format:Hardcover
A remarkable child's-eye view of the Islamic Revolution in Iran from the within. Persepolis successfully uses the medium of comics to disarm the reader and draw him in to provide not just a view from inside the revolution, but a personal view from deep within a family inside the revolution. This makes for a surprisingly intimate and immediate experience of events most Westerners have viewed only vaguely from afar.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A comic strip for all ages 26 Dec 2007
Format:Hardcover
This book traces the life of young girl growing up in turbulent times in Iran, beginning with life under the Shah, moving on to the revolution and continuing through the Iran / Iraq war. The girl narrates anecdotes from her own life that provide a thought-provoking window onto the way these events affected ordinary individuals. The choice of a comic strip to portray events of such significance and tragedy has some disadvantages, one being the limits it places on the possibilities of characterization. On the other hand, there are also numerous advantages. The illustrations can at times be quite powerful, the simplicity of the format is used effectively to highlight the stark brutality and poignancy of the events portrayed, and perhaps above all, the graphic novel format makes a story with such important themes accessible to people of all ages.
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43 of 50 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars recommended but don't take it seriously 6 Nov 2004
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
As an Iranian living in the UK reading Ms Satrapi's book took me years back to the hell I experienced as an adolescent during the rule of the Islamic Republic. I remembered the fear of air attacks, went through the same sadness and joys which made most of my formative years.
The book is intriguing and takes you with it. Ms Satrapi has a gift of writing with a dark humour which at the same time makes you laugh and cry. It deals with raw emotions of a young child in the middle of the war and turmoil. These emotions are the building blocks of our lives and this makes everyone from different backgrounds understand an empathise with that little girl and in this regard the author should be congratulated.
The cartoons are of great quality and despite simplicity you can see wide range of emotions expressed by the characters.
Living through the war and revolution is not an easy experience, displaying it with humour is a hard task which the author fulfills with proficiency.
On the other hand one must not try to learn Iranian history from this book.
Most of the events are from the eye of a Marxist which makes the narrative biased. In other words seeking iranian revolution history from this book is like learning WW2 history from the film U-571!
Many of the accounts are inaccurate e.g. the last Emperor of Qajar dynasty had no child. Also the fact that the cinema was burned by Shah's regime is something that even the Islamic Republic does not claim now!
All in all I enjoyed reading the book. I recommend it to anyone who wants an emotional account of the revolution and war in Iran.
Best of luck for Ms Satrapi's future books.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Illustrated Revolution 18 May 2008
Format:Hardcover
Marjane Satrapi was ten-years-old when the Islamic revolution took away her freedom and rights, thrusting Iran back into the Dark Ages. Through simple but elegant illustrations, Satrapi tells the story of her childhood in Tehran during this time in her country's history. She shows the horrors and deprivations caused by the rise of religious extremists, as well as the bitter humour and courage that each ordinary citizen found to survive such a period.

The amazing thing about this graphic novel is how Satrapi can convey and stir emotions through illustrations. The themes she explores are universal - families torn apart, innocents persecuted, evil gaining power - but she makes them all the more powerful by injecting her young self's punk humour into the storytelling and making the reader care for her and her family. There's a sequel, which I can't wait to read, as well as a film, which is being touted as 2008's winner of the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

With Iran so often villified in the media, it's good to be reminded that the people in that country are just like you and I: not necessarily the choosers of their regime; and certainly not deserving of any bombs coming their way.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! 28 April 2008
By AnnieB
Format:Hardcover
I loved this book ... it's very clever and very funny - really humanises life in an opressive regime in a way that news reports simply cannot. Satrapi's humour is perfectly done (I loved Marji's picture book of dialetical materialism), but there are moments of real horror here too. There were several points that made me cry.

The little girl in the story is a wonderful character and the black-and-white drawings show so much of her vibrancy. Hightly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Achingly beautiful
I never thought a comic book could evoke such raw emotion and outrage within me. Satrapi is an incredibly talented illustrator and what I can only describe as a sublimely creative... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Linda Spelling
5.0 out of 5 stars magnificent graphic account of a real life story
Very original format: telling the story of a revolution, a major event in world history, through a graphic story about a little girl coming of age. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Marco Carnovale
4.0 out of 5 stars Makes the political personal
This wonderfully informative graphic novel makes the political personal and meaningful, within simple black and white images that reminded me of the work of Art Spiegelman, who... Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
3.0 out of 5 stars A heartwarming read
Persepolis is based on Marjane Satrapi's life but as she has repeatedly said in different interviews it is not her biography. Read more
Published on 28 July 2008 by S. Hashemi
5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic read
It does not make sense but Marjane Satrapi's decision to recount her memoir about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution using a comic strip actually renders the tale... Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2007 by Mr. S. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Autobiography
The Autobiographies/Memoirs have it this year, i haven't read one i didn't like. "Persepolis" is at the top of the list of spell binding, well written gut wrenching truth and... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2004
4.0 out of 5 stars Persepolis
I was really dissapointed when i received this book as i had read a review in the Guardian saying how good it was. Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2004 by K. L. Clatworthy
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