Title: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
Author: Marjane Satrapi
My Recommendation: if you haven’t read a graphic novel, give the genre a try–and Persepolis would be a good first choice
My Reflection: I’ve had minimal experience with graphic novels, and since our Latte Lit book group seems to enjoy reading books we might not pick up on own own, I thought a graphic novel would be an interesting pick. Turns out, it was.
This “graphic novel” is really more of “graphic memoir” as it is the author’s account of her childhood growing up in Iran during the Iranian revolution. She did a great job with with illustrations, especially capturing/expressing emotion on faces.
Oddly enough, while I truly enjoyed the story and my experience reading it, I did not like the characters. Any of them. The narrator had such a cruel streak. And her parents seemed so selfish at times–especially when they left their daughter in a war torn country to go on vacation! But somehow, disliking the characters just made my reading experience more interesting.
At our book club meeting we were talking about whether people liked not only Persepolis, but the graphic novel. Some did, some didn’t. I won’t read many more, but I did like it. But with the setting of the book (fundamentalist “takeover”), I couldn’t help thinking about Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, a heartbreaking, beautiful, and moving novel. There was so much more depth in Splendid Suns, and I connected with the characters at a deeper level. When I put these two “similar” novels together, I realize how much I felt like I missed in the graphic novel format.
Clearly, this is a mixed review, but if you haven’t read a graphic novel, they are quick reads, and I don’t think you’d regret the time you spent exploring a different genre. If you want to try a graphic novel, I’ve also heard good things about Maus: A Surviver’s Tale about a Polish Jew’s struggle to survive the Holocaust.
