Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is an exemplary autobiographical graphic novel, in the tradition of Art Spiegelman's classic Maus. Set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, it follows the young Satrapi, the six-year-old daughter of two committed and well-to-do Marxists. As she grows up, she witness first-hand the effects that the revolution and the war with Iraq have on her home, family and school.

The main strength of Persepolis is its ability to make the political personal. Told through the eyes of a child (as reflected in Satrapi's simplistic yet expressive black-and-white artwork), the story shows how young Marjane learns about her family history and how it is entwined with the history of Iran, and watches her liberal parents cope with a fundamentalist regime that gets increasingly rigid as it gains more power. Outspoken and intelligent, Marjane chafes at Iran's increasingly conservative interpretation of Islamic law, especially as she grows into a bright and independent teenager. Throughout she remains a hugely likeable young woman.

Persepolis gives the reader a snapshot of daily life in a country struggling with an internal cultural revolution and a bloody war, but within an intensely personal context. It's a very human history, beautifully and sympathetically told. --Robert Burrow

'Tobias Grey interviews Marjane Satrapi about the film adaptation
of Persepolis'

?A superb piece of work? I wish it and its very talented author a great success.?

'The author's masterstroke is to allow us to experience history from within her family, with irony and tenderness.?

" This is an excellent comic book, that deserves a place with Joe Sacco and even Art Spiegelman."

? ?moving, witty memoir??

`Persepolis...does more to give a genuine understanding of what
Iran is really like than a thousand hours of Newsnight ever could.'

Wise, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, "Persepolis" tells the story of Marjane Satrapi's life in Tehran from the ages of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-grandaughter of Iran's last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. "Persepolis" paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Amidst the tragedy, Marjane's child's eye view adds immediacy and humour, and her story of a childhood at once outrageous and ordinary, beset by the unthinkable and yet buffered by an extraordinary and loving family, is immensely moving. It is also very beautiful; Satrapi's drawings have the power of the very best woodcuts.

Wise, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, "Persepolis: The Story of Childhood" tells the story of Marjane Satrapi's life in Tehran from the ages of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. "Persepolis" paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Amidst the tragedy, Marjane's child's eye view adds immediacy and humour, and her story of a childhood at once outrageous and ordinary, beset by the unthinkable and yet buffered by an extraordinary and loving family, is immensely moving. It is also very beautiful; Satrapi's drawings have the power of the very best woodcuts. "Persepolis" ends on a cliffhanger in 1984, just as fourteen-year-old Marjane is leaving behind her home in Tehran, escaping fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in the West.

In "Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return" we follow our young, intrepid heroine through the next eight years of her life: an eye-opening and sometimes lonely four years of high school in Vienna, followed by a supremely educational and heartwrenching four years back home in Iran. Just as funny and heartbreaking as its predecessor - with perhaps an even greater sense of the ridiculous inspired by life in a fundamentalist state - "Persepolis 2" is also as clear-eyed and searing in its condemnation of fundamentalism and its cost to the human spirit. In its depiction of the universal trials of adolescent life and growing into adulthood - here compounded by being an outsider both abroad and at home, and by living in a state where you have no right to show your hair, wear make-up, run in public, date, or question authority - it's raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.

Now in one volume, both parts of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's brilliant memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution.

2008-07-28 A heartwarming read

Persepolis is based on Marjane Satrapi's life but as she has repeatedly said in different interviews it is not her biography. In other words what goes on in the book is not what exactly happened to her.

The story begins by describing the revolutionary environment of her childhood and the sudden and radical social changes that took place around that time. Some of the accounts are exaggerated and many are closer to urban legends than truth, although, it is understandable that, as a child, even milder versions of what happened could have had the same traumatising effects on a child that the reader gets from the first few chapters.
As an Iranian I identified myself much more with the events that followed her departure to Europe. Satrapi depicts the rebellious character of hers brilliantly. She runs away from the accepted norms of the society in Europe as she does with the new social codes forming in Iran. On the other hand she lacks confidence in expressing her self and faces an identity crisis which leaves her feeling "as a westerner in Iran and as an Iranian in the west". After her return to Iran and the end of the war she faces yet more new realities. Again the depiction of the modern/westernised looking society that remains ultra conservative underneath the surface is excellent.

Overall I think the book is very successful in showing the realities associated with a certain forgotten class of society in Iran but is unnecessarily exaggerating the behaviour of the new government. This I believe is the direct result of her not being engaged with the lower social classes which form the majority of the population of Iran.