The Complete Persepolis: Volumes 1 and 2

by Marjane Satrapi

Book Overview

Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up as a girl in Iran during the revolution has for twenty years been a classroom staple, a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375714839
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Pantheon
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.9" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Like the cover and arrive good

I really like this book because we can see how the thought of the girl change through the period of time as she gets older and I really like that and how she experience everything

A new way to read a memoir

This was the first time I have ever seen a memoir as a graphic novel and I have to say that it was an interesting experience. I loved that the author also drew the artwork so that you can see her personality in not only her writing but her art as well. The lack of color was something that I believe kept everything simple and allowed the reader to focus on what they were reading. It is a bit of a biggie in terms of size for a graphic novel but I think it does the job. I liked the fact that I got to learn about a culture unfamiliar to me as well as events in history that I clearly don't remember learning about. It is a moving tale that is visually pleasing, engaging, and really should be required reading for school.

I read it three times in a row

I originally bought this book for my high school students as it was on the "most banned books of the year" list. My students were studying about why books were banned and were controversial and decided to buy this book and read it to see if we should add it to our library. I read it three times because I felt that I kept getting something new from the text. Satrapi makes her book accessible for anyone even if you are not familiar with politics or Iran history you will get something from the text. We can empathize to Satrapi feeling like a fish out of water, her heartbreaks, and having family pride. A great read for adults and teenagers alike.

Persepolis: both hilarious and deeply moving

Last weekend I had the joy of seeing the film adaptation of the comic book series PERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi. I loved the film. I knew though that I was missing out some key points of Marjane's life so I decided to check out the complete version of PERSEPOLIS in paperback. Although the book is in the form of a graphic novel, the story is a memoir of Marjane Satrapi's life growing up in Iran as well as outside of Iran. I also got the impression that the story is a love letter to Marjane's late grandmother who was a huge influence on Marjane as a young woman. People can nitpick at the details of life in Iran during and after the reign of the Shah that Marjane has written in the book but lets keep this in perspective that this book is not a tome on Iran but an autobiography told from the personal point of view from the author. She told what life was like in Iran through her young, impressionable eyes. Like the Oscar-nominated film, PERSEPOLIS is told with a lot of humor, sadness, and often anger. I could not put the book down. I found myself deeply engrossed in Marjane's life as as child as well as an adult. I enjoyed the animation. I liked how fluid the shapes of the characters flowed. If you have seen the film adaptation of PERSEPOLIS, the book version is definitely worth reading. There is quite a bit of information from Marjane's life that just couldn't fit into the time constraints of the film.

A Powerful Autobiographical Tale in Graphic Novel Form

THE COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS brings together in one softbound volume two graphic novels published earlier in English (translated from French): PERSEPOLIS 1 - THE STORY OF A CHILDHOOD, and PERSEPOLIS 2 - THE STORY OF A RETURN. As a single volume, Ms. Satrapi's work reads as a seamless story of an Iranian woman's maturation from a young girl in the Shah's (and Ayatollah Khomeini's) Iran to her high school years in Austria, back to the Iran attacked by Saddam Hussein and then transformed into a fundamentalist Islamic state, and finally back again to Europe as a young adult. The book's title is borrowed from the name of ancient Persia's ceremonial capital, dating back some 2,500 years, although Persepolis is in fact the Greek translation of the original Persian name, Parsa. The story is strictly autobiographical, rendered as a memoir of childhood and young adulthood. Satrapi begins her story at age ten, the daughter of well-educated and well-off parents who put a premium on their daughter's religious and academic independence. Marjane's parents prod their pre-adolescent daughter toward a liberal education and encourage her to speak out. However, being a rebel against oppression in Iran leads inevitably to trouble and expulsion from school. Her parents recourse is to pack young Marjane off to Austria, isolated and alone in a foreign and far more secular culture. A series of mostly negative experiences leads her back to her homeland and an unsuccessful marriage during the early years of Iran's fundamentalist revolution with its growing religious oppression. When the young adult Marjane and her parents finally realize that her future lies not in Iran but in Europe, she heads off to France where she still lives today. Ms. Satrapi characterizes herself as the perennial outsider wherever she lives. As a young girl, political and religious events contradict her upbringing and isolate her from the accepted beliefs and behaviors. The author conveys her childhood desperation by repeated depictions of herself talking to an ancient, white-bearded God, even cradled in his arms. She is even more the outsider in Austria, forever fumbling in her discoveries of Western culture only to become enslaved by some of its worst features. Returning to Iran after her high school years, Marjane is too Westernized to be Iranian, yet still too Iranian to feel Western. The author's journey to self-discovery and finding her true home serves as the core of her story, punctuated by her departures and arrivals. In fact, some of the most dramatic scenes in THE COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS take place at airports. Satrapi's black-and-white cartooning emphasizes contrast over detail. Indeed, her drawings of people are exceedingly simplified, lacking in all except the basic features necessary to portray a character. This simplicity works, as it stands in stark contrast to the complexity of Iran's constantly changing social, political, and religious structures as well as the complexity of the autho

A Phenomenon In More Ways Than One

As a child Marjane Satrapi lived through the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its aftermath. Included here are Satrapi's internationally-acclaimed graphic novels, PERSEPOLIS: The STORY Of A CHILDHOOD and PERSEPOLIS 2: The STORY Of A RETURN. Combining clear analysis with a sharp sense of humor, the first volume tells the story of Marjane and her family's experiences during the final years of the Monarchy, its downfall, and the subsequent rise of Khomeini and the Islamic Republic. A more personal volume, PERSEPOLIS 2 follows Marjane's student years in Vienna and her later return to Iran. Together with Vincent Paronnaud, Satrapi also co-wrote and co-directed the animated film version.

Freedom has a price.

This book collects Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. Both books are graphic novels telling the true story of the author's life. Book one tells the story of her girlhood in Iran and ends when she leaves Iran to go to a boarding school in Austria. Book two picks up where book one left off, and tells the rest of her story up to the point where she leaves Iran for the second and last time. This is a great, moving story. I found myself empathizing with this girl, even though she comes from a culture nothing like mine and we have nothing in common. It obviously wasn't easy growing up a progressive girl in a represive culture. I could go on and on about the virtues of this book, but it's better if you just read it and find out for yourself. Or see the "major motion picture". (aren't all motion pictures "major"? at least according to their publicity.)

fascinating, a must-read

i am not someone who typically enjoys 'cartoon' strips, but i could not put this book down and read it fervently. i received this book as a gift after having visited iran a couple of times, and i was interested in learning more about the history and culture. what marjiane captures of her childhood, and her evolution into adulthood, is thoughtful, amusing, heart-breaking and at times hilarious. at times she softens the brutality of her words with the humor of amusing caricatures, or sometimes the simplicity of what she sees as a child is made more stark and tragic by her drawings. her personal journey and her family's experiences during and after the revolution really give one pause. i would highly recommend this book, it is rich with humor and emotion.