Rating: 
Summary: Quite possibly the best book of the year
Review: "Persepolis" marks the third book in the almighty triumvirate of great autobiographical graphic novels that examine injustice. Joining the ranks of "Maus" by Art Spiegelman and "Palestine" by Joe Sacco, "Persepolis" has garnered a remarkable amount of attention. Positive attention, that is. Suddenly it's getting high marks in everything from "Entertainment Weekly" to "VOYA: Voice of Youth Advocates". I wonder to myself whether or not author/artist Marjane Satrapi has been surprised by the mounds of attention. I also wonder how it is that she was able to take her own life story and weave it seamlessly with the history of her own country, Iran. This book is like an illustrated version of "Midnight's Children", but far darker and far more real.
The first image in "Persepolis" is the same image you see on its cover. Marjane sits wearing a veil in 1980 for the first time. As the story continues, Marjane explains her own beginnings as well as the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution". In her own life, Marjane was an only child of middle class intellectual parents. She experienced the usual childhood ups and downs. Sometimes she believed she was God's next chosen prophet. Other times she wanted to demonstrate with her parents in the street against the Shah. Over the course of her childhood Marjane learns more about the limits of class in Iran as well as the secrets behind her family history. She finds that her grandfather was a prince, her uncle a political prisoner for years, and her parents far braver than she ever expected. Marjane deals with the danger of challenging authority under the rule of religious extremists while growing up as a normal girl. By the end, her parents determine that the only thing left to do is to send their only daughter to Vienna and Marjane must face a future without them by her side.
Before I read the book I scanned the illustrations and found them lacking. I thought (originally) that they were too simplistic to effectively convey a deep plot and deeper discussion of the human propensity for violence (and good). After reading the first page I discovered that this assumption, while normally correct, was wrongdy wrong wrong wrong. Yes, it's certainly true that Satrapi's style is simple. At the same time, it's also the ideal companion to the piece. In a book such as this you do not want to draw attention away from the narrative voice with inappropriately overdone illustrations. As for the writing itself, it's engaging to even the most reluctant reader. And what better way to teach people a little Iranian history? Quite frankly, I was baffled by some of the things I discovered here. I consider myself a lightly educated middle class individual. I know a little more world history than joe schmoe down the street, but not much more. Nonetheless, after reading roughly five pages of "Persepolis" I discovered, to my chagrin, that I know jack squat about Iran. Were you aware that Iranians are not, in fact, Arabs? How about the roots of the Cultural Revolution? How much do you know about that? Or the day to day routines of people living in Iran in the 1980s? No?
Today we the American people live in a country where our rulers like to toss about phrases like, "Axis of Evil", and condemn entire countries with a single blow. What "Persepolis" does so (apparently) effortlessly is to put a human face on inhuman suffering. Iranians have been through more horrors than can be recounted in a single book. I think what struck me the hardest about this story was the little things. The stories about girls in school skipping class to flirt with boys. Discussions with other kids about farting from kidney beans. Punk rock and Michael Jackson. All this took the book from being a personal voice of a nation's struggle to the point where your average reader identified deeply with the characters. The final image in this book is heart breaking. I only hope I have the guts to get "Persepolis 2" and read it cover to cover.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Autobiography
Review: <br />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 honesty. <br />Other books to read are: Nightmares Echo, Dry,Reading Lolita,Running With Scissors<br />
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: History of a young girl, blossoming into a rebellious and freedom-loving teenager, first during the days of protest against the Shah, then under the greater repression of the mullacracie. Would be hard to find a book that goes straighter to the essential points. Written in black-white comic book form.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: I almost NEVER read books. Well I'm a student and that's all I have to do at school so reading for fun is not really my thing, but Persepolis seemed interesting to me when I saw it at my school's book store so I bought it.. At first I thought I'm going to quit reading it just like any other book I bought before but I was wrong. I finished this book in ONE night!!! This book was something else, I could relate to most of the stories because I was born way after the storeis in this book take place. I should'd say this, but my eyes where 'watery' after reading this book. So I got the second book today and I hope it's as good as the first one. I fully recommend this book to everyone, at least I enjoyed it a lot I hope you will too!
Rating:
Summary: SO TRUE!
Review: I am a 28-year-old Iranian woman living in the US. This book is basically my life-story. It depicts the chaos and confusion of regime-change through a very wise child's eyes. Throw a revolution and a war into a country within 3 years of eachother and a child will grow up quick to ask questions and think deeper. Ms. Satrapi shows the way Iranians relate to eachother, the warmth of the family and the love for neighbors and friends in this short, illustrated book. I recommend this book to anyone of any nationality who wants to know more about what happened in Iran and what many Iranians and Iranian immigrants went through during those times(1979-198X). It can also be of interest to those interested in culture and politics and how the changing class and power structures affect human relations (the window-washer turned head of Ministry of Health.) I have yet to read the second volume but I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: An unusual childhood
Review: I read an interview with the author in the New York Times and decided to look for this book when it was published. I wasn't disappointed. Satrapi begins with a brief history of Iran from the last millenium up until 1969. Her life and historical events become very intertwined from that point on. As the book progresses, you get the feeling that the pictures she draws are the closest thing to what she remembers, and this book is as much for her as it is for the reader. There are a lot of political issues covered in the book, but again it is done in the perspective of how it affected this girl's home life. Nor are the issues clear cut, and some American readers might find this perplexing. Satrapi and her family were opposed to the Shah, to American and British imperialism, as well as to the Islamic Revolution. War is portrayed as a noisy, fear-inducing monster without a face that can mislead boys towards dismal fates and reduce a neighbor into a strip of flesh wrapped up with a turquoise bracelet. In the end what the reader is left with is a very creative woman's effort to record the memories of her childhood and share them with anyone who cares. I can't wait to read the sequel!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent and Touching Read
Review: I read this book recently and found it imposible to put it down, I finished reading the first time I picked it up. The author does an excellent job in telling and illustrating Iran's contemporary history, and she does so -I think- quite objectibly, squaring blame not only on the major powers for their share on Iran's internal repression, but also on Iranians themselves. This type of self-examination is a rare thing in Muslim countries, where local media is coerced by the local government or which panders to victimization of Muslims and/or demonization of the West. Ms. Satrapi paints herself, no doubt, in the best light; as a curious, precocious, insightful child, who sometimes sounds too irreverent and self-aware for a 10 year old. Yet this is perhaps the most compelling aspect of Persepolis, she looks at a complex political transition as a child, yet without sounding over-simplistic. It brought together several key ideas I had read in other more technical books about the Islamic Revolution. She weighs the conflicting messages (so harmful to a child's self-esteem) she received from her parents and society and finds a way to navigate through them. Her parents are middle class idealistic leftists who call for 'equality' but who nevertheless spend vacations in Europe and more or less spoil her. On one ocassion she gets advise from her mother about the need to forgive one's enemies, a few pages later she calls for death to those who tortured her brother in jail. The author, as a child, is besieged by these polarities. Her parents had also welcomed the Islamic Revolution, as secular Iranians did, for the unity they could provide while hoping/expecting their influence to dissipate after the Shah was deposed.
Ms. Satrapi lets the reader understand that she was far from under-priviledged in post-revolutionary Iran. She and her friends find ways to be 'cool' in spite of the vice control police that roamed the city. One understands then that no one, no matter how rich, was safe from the repression that ensued. Her father is harassed for drinking alcohol and she for wearing 'punk' (a.k.a Nike) tennis shoes. At some point her parents have to smuggle posters for her, which would have otherwise been confiscated at the airport by customs (how she thought that Iron Maiden only had four members is beyond me, but we'll let that one go!)
A complaint is that the storming of the American embassy only gets a cursory glance. Surely the tension that aroused from this would have been part of her everyday life, because of the international crisis it provoked, not to mention the failed American military Operation ('Eagleclaw') to rescue them. I also expected her to criticize the hostage takeover. She didn't. A minor glitch is the story of her uncle, a communist who was exiled to Russia, at some point in his story one is not sure whether he was detained by the police in Russia or in Iran (?).
Yet it is the Islamic Revolution who gets the block of her criticism. She tells examples of how the revolution killed the same revolutionaries who midwifed it to life, her uncle included. How even early on, it had become more repressive than the Shah had been. This book will benefit those whose only image of Iran (as another reviewer eloquently remarked) is that of terrosists and hostage takers. This book gives a human face to a struggle and repression that most Americans cannot fathom, and in the end, shows us that we are not all that different. Most of all, it paints a picture of life in a regime that stiffles the very air out of its people. A regime this reader hopes is on its last leg, and one whose repression has -contrary to what many believe- made Iran a country where popular support for the West is unparalled.
Don't let the less than perfect score discourage you, this is a funny, uplifting and touching work, truly from the heart. What a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Coming of Age, Female, in Tehran
Review: Marjane Satrapi was eleven years old when the Islamic revolution ousted the Shah, sending Iran into another era of turmoil and new forms of repression. Persepolis is her story, told in short pieces that weave personal experience with historical facts.
The graphic frames provide a humorous counterpoint to darker episodes described by text. For example, on page 3, the text reveals: "Then came 1980: the year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school." The artwork in the frames show a scattering of small girls who are playing with their veils, using them as monster masks, horse bridles for piggy-back games, or even tying them together for jump rope.
On a darker note, a friend of the family named Ahmadi never returned from jail. As the family is told, "In the end he was cut to pieces," (52), the frame shows a child's paper doll-like figure, separated into pieces of torso and each limb.
Highly recommended for adults, and for adolescents who want to discover the way of life in other cultures, other times. For anyone trying to make sense of difficult political situations and / or cultural repressions.
Marjane Satrapi is an important international voice, finally available in translation.
Rating: 
Summary: A quick, okay read...
Review: Persepolis follows the life of the author as she is growing up in Iran amid wars and uprisings. Told in graphic novel form, it reminded me a lot of Maus, the only other graphic novel I had read before. Personally, I liked Maus better, but this could be because I read both parts of Maus, while I have yet to get my hands on the second volume of Persepolis. In its own right, it did teach me lots about Iran that I didn't know before, and I was interested enough to want to pick up the follow-up. Maybe I'll like it more after I get the whole story.
Rating:
Summary: The Iranian revolution viewed by a little girl: touching!
Review: PERSEPOLIS is a graphical autobiography of the author, who experienced the Iranian revolution and the Iran-Iraq war as a child in the 1970s and 1980s. It is told in the beatiful black and white graphical language of a comic strip where simple pictures communicate strong feelings, much better than words could. But PERSEPOLIS is also the story or a whole generation of young Iranians, who left their land in the quest of better conditions during the post-revolutionary era. I belong to this generation myself and I totally identified with the experiences Ms SATRAPI went through- her childhood in post revolutionary Iran, her description of Iranian society at the time, her exile in Austria- also in the volumes 2 & 3 (which already appeared in French). Though conceived as a comic book, the book has messages which are not childish in nature: the child, through the naiveness of her views, points out to many of the contradictions of Iranian society that adults are unwilling to face. It is also one of the rare unbiased personal accounts of what happened in Iran at the time of ther evolution and as such, is an interesting document on this period of Iranian history.
(It certainly contains more information on Iran and its people than the junk broadcasted on most TV channels). Some readers (including reviews posted here) criticize this book for not being a realistic description of Iran. Though I totally disagree with this criticism, the main point is that PERSEPOLIS is NOT a history book nor a sociological study. It is a story, the story of a childhood and the author has never claimed it to be otherwise. I definitely recommend this book, first to all Iranians who live abroad, especially those who did not grow up in Iran and did not
experience the revolution, and then to all readers interested in getting a human, insider view of what Iranian society was like in the early 1980s.
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