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Avg. Rating: 5
Should be required reading in all schools
I just happened on the book in my local bookstore. Its bright red cover attracted me. I read the blurb, decided to check out the first few pages. About a half hour later, I realized that I was clearly hooked, and I that I was going to buy the book even though I knew that I would be finishing it that night. To join the chorus, I learned more about Iran and the Iranian revolution from this one book than from any other source. It was like a big squegee that cleaned off a dirty window and I was able to say "Oh! I see!" My first thought after reading it was "this should be required reading in school" I see from another review here that it must be in some! I also found out from a google search, that it is now required reading at West Point. That's pretty impressive advertising right there. The way Iranian history is so incredibly entwined with Marjane's life makes it all accessible and real. She's just a regular kid, trying to do regular kid things, while all of these horrific things are happening around her. Friends and Family disappearing while she's at school, a teenage desire to be "cool" suddenly turns into a frightening confrontation. You feel her family's hope, and their increasing panic, fear and depression as they realize their dreams for their country are not being realized. Meanwhile, life continues, as it must.
For a school book it was pritty good.
I read it al in two days. it was good. I enjoyed it. Probably the first school book I liked.
A great graphic novel about an interesting childhood
I heard about this book through a friend of mine who went to a book signing by Marjane Satrapi in town recently. The book mainly deals with the author's childhood years going in Iran shortly before, during and right after the Revolution. It was interesting to see how she developed her progressive views from her Communist parents and other relatives like her grandmother and uncle who defied the restrictive Iranian government. The book is also impressive because you get a first hand view of what it was really like to be a woman in that society. I think I learned more about the Iranian Revolution, or at least an alternative view, from reading this book than from all those years in school. If you are looking for a pro-American/pro-Western Iranian point of view, you are likely not to find much of it in this book, as it talks a lot about negatively about Western policies towards Iran's oil industry and Western involvement in Iraq. The drawings are amazing. I felt like Satrapi's life vividly came to life to me and told her story more clearly to me, which made to book even better.
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