PERSEPOLIS, BY MARJANE SATRAPI

Been meaning to get to this for some time. Satrapi tells the story of her childhood in Iran, where she witnessed the Islamic Revolution firsthand. So far it’s fantastic, exceedingly simple cartooning and prose, but very moving and expressive nonetheless. More later.

Done
Quality work. Satrapi’s cartooning style is mimimalist. I think I read a review somewhere that complained about the limited range of expression that she can achieve with her style, but that emotional distillation is the whole point of cartooning. Well, maybe not the whole point, but one of the more important ones, and Satrapi is quite good at it. Her layouts and prose are likewise minimal, but as a result her complex story set against a complex revolution in a complex country emerges with clarity and poignancy. Her story is actually so “complex” that one almost doubts all the details, but that doesn’t detract.

As a wholly ignorant, sheltered, presumptuous, middleclass American, this was my first introduction to an Iranian story, from an Iranian perspective, and really gave me context for what at least one Iranian life has been like. Satrapi is probably one of the more Westernized, liberal Iranians, so maybe these books aren’t the best introdcution to the typical Iranian, but I think the experience of any Iranian is so distant from my own that anyone’s story is valuable to me.

I guess the most obvious comparison is with Maus. I wish I had my copy on hand, but as I recall Maus was far more unsettling. Spiegelman mouse/cat conceit and his shifting syles and time periods wove the surealism and absurdity of his subject matter into the medium, which Satrapi doesn’t quite achieve. Persepolis is far from traumatic to read. Spiegelman delves into his father’s very personal experiences of atrocity, while Satrapi only experienced equivalent things second hand. This isn’t a personal critique or anything, but just a possible explanation for the lighter tone and mood of her book next to Maus.

Probably more to say, but in short, these books are well worth your money. Or, uh, a trip to the library.