Forget everything you think you know about Iran, Iranians and the Iranian revolution. The author of this page turning graphic novel was a young girl growing up in westernized, secular Iran under the Shah when revolution broke out. Unfortunately, power was ultimately seized by Islamic extremists and wearing a veil for women became mandatory, women could not go outside with a man who she was not related to, parties and alcohol were no longer allowed, and the repression under the new regime was far worse than under the old. Women's rights were set back centuries. The author's parents sent her to Europe to be safe and free, but being only 14 and alone Ms. Satrapi did not know how to handle freedom and the sexual revolution so foreign to her own upbringing and culture. I learned so much from this book, it is a must read, if for nothing else to learn that these people from the "Axis of Evil" are human beings like the rest of us. The graphics are excellent, the story riveting, you will not be able to put this book down. It has been made into a movie. If you have read the graphic novel Maus which won the Pulitzer prize, this book is on the same level and will haunt you in the same way.
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The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Booklover429, February 7, 2008
Forget everything you think you know about Iran, Iranians and the Iranian revolution. The author of this page turning graphic novel was a young girl growing up in westernized, secular Iran under the Shah when revolution broke out. Unfortunately, power was ultimately seized by Islamic extremists and wearing a veil for women became mandatory, women could not go outside with a man who she was not related to, parties and alcohol were no longer allowed, and the repression under the new regime was far worse than under the old. Women's rights were set back centuries. The author's parents sent her to Europe to be safe and free, but being only 14 and alone Ms. Satrapi did not know how to handle freedom and the sexual revolution so foreign to her own upbringing and culture. I learned so much from this book, it is a must read, if for nothing else to learn that these people from the "Axis of Evil" are human beings like the rest of us. The graphics are excellent, the story riveting, you will not be able to put this book down. It has been made into a movie. If you have read the graphic novel Maus which won the Pulitzer prize, this book is on the same level and will haunt you in the same way.(10 of 20 readers found this comment helpful)