Books

by Marjane Satrapi

This book is a graphic memoir of the author's childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It has been compared to another graphic novel called Maus by Art Spiegelman which is about a Jewish-Polish family's experiences in the Nazi death camps.

The comic book format of this book made for a very quick read and was a good medium to introduce one to Iran's Islamic Revolution and war with Iraq. The story is filtered through the eyes of an adolescent/young teenage girl, Marji, so it doesn't get lost in the details (dates, names, battles) that often loose my interest in more traditional history books.

Marji's parents are well educated, progressive, and encourage their daughter through their own example to be the same. As the Iranian society gets more and more restrictive - especially for the women - the young Marji often doesn't understand the need to maintain a public facade that is completely different from her home life and consequently has a number of run-ins with the instructors at her school and various authority figures in the streets. She is a typically rebellious teenager who atypically is forced to contend with governmental oppression, persecution of friends and family, and the uncertainties of war.

I did enjoy this book and would be interested in reading the sequels about the author's life in exile. I'm also very interested in reading Maus to see for myself how the two novels compare.