Short review: “Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return”

About two weeks ago I reported favorably on a book, Persepolis, that was new to me. It was a graphic novel, a genre I don’t often essay, but it was excellent.  And that book had a sequel (Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return), which I finished yesterday and I’ll mention today. First, here’s some of what I wrote about the first part:

The other day I reported on the death of Marjane Satrapi, comic book creator (she preferred that term to “graphic novel”), film producer, and author.  She was only 56, and her family reported that she became depressed and “died of sadness” about a year after her partner, Mattias Ripa, died of cancer.  Wikipedia outlines her accomplishments, headed by the comic book Persepolis, which came in two volumes:

Her best-known works include the graphic novel Persepolis and its film adaptation; the graphic novel Chicken with Plums; Woman, Life, Freedom; and the Marie Curie biopic Radioactive.

The success of Persepolis established Satrapi as one of the most widely read Iranian authors in the world, and her role in co-directing the film adaptation led to her becoming the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Yesterday I finished the first volume of Persepolis, and was greatly moved by the illustrated account of Satrapi’s life in Iran, both under the Shah and thereafter.  Her disillusionment with 1979 Iranian Revolution is the centerpiece, and the illustrations are instrumental in conveying her feelings.

Here are the two volumes together from the Wikipedia site.  The English translations came out in 2003 and 2004, respectively.  Together they constitute a graphic autobiography of Satrapi from birth up to the age of 25, when she left Iran for good.  She died on June 6 of this year.

The first volume ends when Satrapi is in Austria, sent by her parents to escape from political oppression endemic to Iran under the Revolution.  She had a hard life in Vienna, essaying the idea of boys (the thought of romance without marriage was verboten in Iran), encountering xenophobes suspicious of Iranians, falling in with a group of drug-taking punks, becoming depressed, and then finally living on the streets for two months in the winter and contracting a near- fatal case of bronchitis.

She finally returns to Iran seeking solace but finding only more oppression.  Marjane meets a fellow artist Reza, the two get married, and the marriage falls apart after two years. She finally returns to Europe, leaving Iran behind for good.

The story is simple but revealing as we get to know a rebellious, outspoken girl who cannot tolerate the theocracy, the veil it imposes on her, and the government Diktats that penalize people for any attempt to find pleasure or simply be themselves. Her tortuous search for love is also highly constrained by a morality imposed by Islam.

I recommend reading both books, which I see are available on Amazon pretty cheaply (volume 1 here, volume 2 here). I’ve been posting tweets daily from Masih Aminejad, whose life is devoted to freeing Iranians (especially women) from Islamic oppression, and this book gives you an excellent idea of what it’s like to grow up female in that country. It’s a shame that Western feminists don’t make more to-do about this kind of oppression.

Here’s a sample page from the Amazon preview:

Satrapi also co-wrote and co-directed (with Vincent Paronnaud) an eponymous 2007 film based on the books, a film that won a ton of prizes, including an Oscar nomination.

[Satrapi and Paonnaud] received numerous awards including the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and the César Award for Best First Film as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.

In this clip from the movie, Satrapis is stopped by the morality police for running, an act that is supposedly lewd because it makes her butt wiggle. There’s also a scene in which the officials of her school try to cover up the women students.

. . . and the movie’s trailer: