2. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. Print.

Annotation:

Gross horrors abound in this graphic novel of growing up in Iran: Islamic fundamentalists, war, arrests, bombings, riots, and death. All told, through the eyes of a young girl, from age 6 to 14.

Justification for Nomination:

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, is a complex and beautifully written and illustrated memoir about her life growing up in Iran. Marjane is a plucky, rebellious and precocious girl and tells her story firsthand with wit, sarcasm, rebellion.

Persepolis is simplistically, but powerfully, illustrated without the use of any color. The illustrations are entirely in black and white, laid out in a comic book format. The story is fast paced using small panels, helping to move the story along quickly and easily. There is the occasional panel which will encompass the entire page, causing the reader to pause and reflect and really delve into the illustration. Satrapi’s style of illustration is childlike and innocent in its simplicity, which suits a story told by a young narrator. The illustrations and text cohesively tell the story and evoke emotions – both through the characters in Persepolis to the reader herself. The illustrations communicate an almost stronger feeling of these emotions – much better than the words may.

What makes Persepolis so astonishing and worthy of a nomination is the fact that Marjane’s story is quite ordinary once you remove the Islamic Revolution and war between Iran and Iraq. Marjane must hide behind her veil in public, but remove that, and what you have left is a young girl living an adolescent life of painting her fingernails, wearing jewelry and Nikes, listening to punk music, hanging a poster of Iron Maiden on her wall, and sneaking cigarettes. These experiments are reminiscent of an American teenage life. The only difference between Marjane’s experience and American teenagers was that we did not have to hide our painted fingernails, our music, or our Nikes. We did not encounter bombings or fear the phone ringing meant somebody close to us had been killed. When we left the house wearing our Nikes, we did not have to fear interrogation by fundamentalist. Persepolis is universally appealing to teenagers all over the world.

It’s hard not to root for, laugh with, cry with, and even love Marjane. Truly an unforgettable girl.

Genre Category: Graphic Novel, Coming of Age, Realistic/Edgy, Multicultural, Memoir