Book Review - Persepolis

For my men's book group, where we try to hit fiction/non-fiction from around the globe, we read Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis. It was a great pick--the turmoil in Iran and the Middle East is still relevant--and it happened independently of my godparents' hailing from the Tehran area.

(While I wouldn't call myself a skilled book-reviewer, I try to include enough details and opinions to entice future readers, in most cases.)

Marjane Satrapi’s tale of growing up in Iran is presented in a unique and often hilarious comic-book format. She is obviously a talented writer and storyteller and artist (three

skills that seldom overlap). While the voice is strictly that of the coming-of-age girl (born in 1970 in Iran) the illustrations and Greek chorus-style renderings of authority figures beautifully convey what many Persians must have been feeling in the years surrounding the 1979 Revolution.

The writing is what’s often referred to as economical. You won’t find paragraphs of lyrical prose or florid descriptions of, well, anything. In that, there’s genius. Continue reading...

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