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Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return Cover

Powells.com Staff Pick

I must admit I read this, the second installment of Satrapi's illustrated autobiography, before reading the first. Without the full premise of how she left her native country of Iran for Europe, it was easy to think that I had found a interesting connection with the memoirs of an Iranian girl that any loner American teenager could relate to, complete with all the punk rock music, attitude, and drugs that confirm an alienated adolescence. However, Satrapi's story is much more intense and unlike any other because there is real grief, repression, murder, and ghosts in this book. Satrapi's story is haunting. It would eat at you if it wasn't for the simple and humorous line drawings which humanize and mitigate her journeys. This is the same successful technique of illustrated storytelling that Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco have perfected, reminding us in a palatable and artful way the disturbing realities of our times. And Satrapi has got a bold and sassy mouth like no one else.
Recommended by Shannon B., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In Persepolis, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day," Marjane Satrapi dazzled us with her heartrending memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Here is the continuation of her fascinating story.

In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran.

As funny and poignant as its predecessor, Persepolis 2 is another clear-eyed and searing condemnation of the human cost of fundamentalism. In its depiction of the struggles of growing up — here compounded by Marjane's status as an outsider both abroad and at home — it is raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.

Review:

"Part one of Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel found her surviving war, the Islamic Revolution, religious oppression and the execution of several close friends. If part two covers less traumatic events, it's also more subtle and, in some ways, more moving. Sent by her liberal, intellectual parents from Tehran to Vienna to get an education and escape the religious police, rebellious but vulnerable teenage Satrapi learns about secular freedom's pitfalls. Struggling in school, falling in with misfits and without a support group, she ends up dealing drugs for a boyfriend and eventually finds herself homeless on the streets. Forced to return to Iran, Satrapi must once again take up the veil, but learns to live within the constraints of her native land, which border on the surreal. For instance, while Satrapi's racing to catch a bus, the religious police tell her to stop running so her bottom doesn't make 'obscene' movements. 'Well, then, don't look at my ass!' she angrily responds. The book's cornerstone is her relationship with her parents, who seem to have enough faith in her to let her make the wrong decisions, as when she marries an egotistical artist. Satrapi's art is deceptively simple: it's capable of expressing a wide range of emotion and capturing subtle characterization with the bend of a line. Poignant and unflinching, this is a universally insightful coming-of-age story." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Satrapi's story is compelling and extremely complex....It would have made a stirring document no matter how it was told, but the graphic form...endows it with a combination of dynamism and intimacy....And it is wildly charming." Luc Sante, The New York Times

Review:

"Satrapi's high-contrast, bold-lined, stencil-ish artwork remains very much at the service of one of the most compelling youth memoirs of recent years." Booklist

Review:

"The art, though less mature in Persepolis, was more visceral. However, Persepolis 2 has a better story. Satrapi has real comic timing, which she makes good use of in the teenage narrative." Laurel Maury, Los Angeles Times

Review:

"What is astonishing about Satrapi's work is that with evocative drawings and minimal use of words, it creates immensely sympathetic and real characters." San Francisco Chronicle

Review:

"Persepolis 2 never feels anything less than effortless. The art is still the best kind of simple...and it dances nicely with narration and dialogue that balance the absurd horrors of the fundamentalist regime with humorous moments that make it just bearable." The Oregonian (Portland, OR)

Review:

"You've never seen anything like Persepolis — the intimacy of a memoir, the irresistibility of a comic book, and the political depth of a the conflict between fundamentalism and democracy. Marjane Satrapi may have given us a new genre." Gloria Steinem

Synopsis:

In Persepolis 2, Marjane Satrapi continues her tale with the same dazzling combination of singular artistry, insight, and storytelling elan. Funny and heartbreaking, edgy and searingly observant — both about the life of one adolescent and about the life of an entire nation — Persepolis 2 is a clear confirmation of Satrapi's stunning talents.
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About the Author

Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran. She grew up in Tehran, where she studied at the Lycée Français before leaving for Vienna and then going to Strasbourg to study illustration. She currently lives in Paris, where her illustrations appear regularly in newspapers and magazines. She is also the author of several children's books.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780375714665
Subtitle:
The Story of a Return
Author:
Satrapi, Marjane
Publisher:
Pantheon Books
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Social conditions
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Ethnic Cultures - General
Subject:
Graphic Novels - General
Subject:
Satrapi, Marjane
Publication Date:
August 2005
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
187
Dimensions:
8.76x6.10x.62 in. .71 lbs.
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