Book Review: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

What a powerful and informative memoir. It's an unfortunate truth that Westerners are largely naive to the history of the Middle East and the Islamic Revolution. Still today there are the same prejudices of labelling whole countries as terrorists or fundamentalist, or thinking that the Middle East has been stagnant in its customs for centuries. These ideas existed at the time Marjane penned her memoir in 2002 and their persistence is one reason I would recommend this book to any reader. The other reason would be simply that this is a brilliant graphic novel; a captivating story told in a unique and creative style of drawing.

The book follows the life of its author from the age of ten into her twenties. Marjane's coming of age is as tumultuous as the political backdrop to her story, which is just that: a backdrop. This is less a tale about war and more the story of a girl who just happened to grow up through war. The focus is on the joys, discoveries, and hardships of Marjane which gives the book it heartwarming and humorous feel. She has managed to avoid political statements and has not attempted to persuaed the reader to any one viewpoint. For this I am grateful because it means the book never becomes preachy or didactic.

In Marjane, we meet a rambunctious young girl supported by a loving and intelligent family who are struggling to survive through the turbulent politics of Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Her upper class, well educated, and very Westernised parents go out every day to protest, and raise their daughter to be fiercely independent. Dangerously independent, considering the new laws of their country.

Through the deaths, massacres, and bombings, Marjane continues to grow and be distracted by the dreams, aspirations, and misunderstanding that accompany any childhood. She wants to be a religious prophet, a communist, a Marxist, a punk, a scientist, an anarchist. She wants to play with her male friends, to march in the protests with her parents, to have the freedoms she had in her youth. Her desires and frustrations are familiar to anyone who experienced childhood.

The second half of the book deals with Marjane as a teenager living in Austria after being sent away by her parents. They have realised that their daughter is too loud and independent a woman to survive in war-torn Iran and they make a very difficult choice to send her away. Here she has her first taste of the Western world which, after bomb-riddled Tehran, seems at first extravagantly opulent.

Satrapi's narrative is witty and poignant in showing the horrors and heartaches of war alongside the humour of growing up. She is frank in revealing her thoughts and experiences. She depicts herself at times as ignorant and naive, at other times she seems to know too much. Marjane over the years is awkward, foolish, crazy, headstrong, a try-hard, and a cliche. She is a universal character that we have all been at some time in our lives.

Ultimately it's the combination of an ecumenical protagonist, a fascinating point in history, and the simply striking artwork of Persepolis that makes it near impossible to put down. Two big Sissy Hankshaw thumbs up for this one.