line art in black and white,
economy to reveal insight.
a glimpse, got the gist;
long gaze, power persist.

In these turbulent pandemic times when it seems there’s no end to challenges and worrisome news we have to face, reading Persepolis, a graphic novel biography, is a perspective-changing experience. We see a good number of calamities, including the Islamic revolution, the Iran-Iraq war and the forming of the Islamic Republic through the eyes of first a ten-year-old child and eventually a young woman. A rewarding read for anyone who will appreciate a story of survival and staying true to yourself in tough times wrapped up in the history and culture of Iran.

I'm not a big fan of graphic novels but I do enjoy GN memoir. They have a unique way of making big, complex events like the wars in the Middle East very accessible and relatable. The author's story of her girlhood through young adulthood in Iran and as an expat is very memorable.

A memoir in graphic book form, of a rebellious young woman who grew up in revolutionary Iran. It’s quite an achievement and is essential reading for high school and college students.

Marjane Satrapi was the great-granddaughter of the last Persian emperor, who was overthrown by Reza, the first Shah. The country’s name was changed to “Iran.” In 1979 the second Shah was overthrown and Iran was taken over by the Muslim clerics led by Ayatollah Khomeini. The Western-influenced education and culture pushed by previous generations were suddenly halted and women were veiled and forced into a subservient position. Marjane became a rebel against those limits, placing herself and her family in danger. She was fortunate not to be executed or imprisoned for her rebellion. Some of her friends WERE executed.

This is an emotionally difficult book to read, although an enlightening one. There are not many books about this part of Iran’s history, especially not aimed at young adults and not from the *inside.* Just seeing the world through other eyes shows us how narrow our own vision is. But more than history, we see the life of a girl growing up, a girl you can relate to, as she changes from acceptance to rebellion. One of the most important illustrated books ever published.

Ugh- this book is completely overrated- I found the drawing awkward and amateurish, and the main narrator obnoxious and uninteresting.

This is a great book.
Thank you Marjane Satrapi for writting it and for sharing your story and to let us discover and understand better Iran.

A powerful true story about life under a repressive regime and about a young girl's journey to independence.

Satrapi's wonderful "bande dessine" is not so much a graphic novel as a graphic autobiography of war, peace, migration, culture, religion, and the growth of a girl into a young woman during a time of repression.

Her telling of the Iranian revolt balances the true and oppressive history of the Shah's regime with the equally true and oppressive history of the religious clerics that took over. But all of this is told from the viewpoint of a girl who was losing friends in war.

Originally written in French, the story loses nothing in translation. Absolutely riveting.

From the stark inking to the interweaving of the personal and political, Persepolis is one of the best, must-read graphic novels of our age. Still somehow relevant after all these years, Persepolis will make you cry and laugh and wonder how humans can be so good and so bad at the same time.

Not a book I would have picked up and read, not in a million years. I've never read graphic anything, not really interested in Persian culture or history, never heard of any of these issues.

I guess that makes me the exact person who should read this. And I did. And it was amazing. It blew my mind. I read it in a day. The whole thing. I lived it, breathed it, couldn't forget it.

This young woman is my hero. Someone who stands up for justice, in circumstances so deadly, who pushes for what's right, who takes advantage of opportunities and calls out wrongs, this is someone who I can enjoy. The writing is adorable and gorgeous, which is not something normally said of graphic novels, I'm guessing, but much comes through the clear and well-expressed choice of words.

Now when Iran is in the news, I think of this story, this woman, this history, and every person who has to live in a country with a devastatingly horrible government. Life is good, life is difficult, life is full of all kinds of people. This woman is incredible, and strong, and heroic.

An incredible and powerful memoir of Satrapi's coming of age in the middle of the Iranian Revolution, trying to adapt from her secular and academic youth in a newly fundamentalist religious state, and growing up in a world beneath the veil. Like American Born Chinese, this is a book for those who want a window into another person's life.