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Picking up the thread where her debut memoir-in-comics concluded,Persepolis 2: The Story of a Returndetails Marjane Satrapi's experiences as a young Iranian woman cast abroad by political turmoil in her native country. Older, if not exactly wiser, Marjane reconciles her upbringing in war-shattered Tehran with new surroundings and friends in Austria. Whether living in the company of nuns or as the sole female in a house of eight gay men, she creates a niche for herself with friends and acquaintances who feel equally uneasy with their place in the world.
After a series of unfortunate choices and events leave her literally living in the street for three months, Marjane decides to return to her native Iran. Here, she is reunited with her family, whose liberalism and emphasis on Marjane's personal worth exert as strong an influence as the eye-popping wonders of Europe. Having grown accustomed to recreational drugs, partying, and dating, Marjane now dons a veil and adjusts to a society officially divided by gender and guided by fundamentalism. Emboldened by the example of her feisty grandmother, she tests the bounds of the morality enforced on the streets and in the classrooms. With a new appreciation for the political and spiritual struggles of her fellow Iranians, she comes to understand that "one person leaving her house while asking herself, 'is my veil in place?' no longer asks herself 'where is my freedom of speech?'"
Satrapi's starkly monochromatic drawing style and the keenly observed facial expressions of her characters provide the ideal graphic environment from which to appeal to our sympathies. Bereft of fine detail, this graphic novel guides the reader's attention instead toward a narrative rich with empathy. Don't be fooled by the glowering self-portrait of the author on the back flap; it’s nearly impossible to readPersepolis 2without feeling warmth toward Marjane Satrapi.--Ryan Boudinot
Great Sequel This book picks up where Persepolis left off, when Marji's parents send her to Vienna to escape the traditionalist Iranian regime. This sequel is equally as impressive. This deals more with how others, in this case Europeans, identify her as "other." Marji always felt like an "outsider" or a "Third-Worlder" as she had a hard time relating sometimes to her white friends. From being a homeless drug addict for a brief time to finding out one her first loves was gay to becoming an aerobics teacher, Marji definitely goes through more things in her short time than most people do in a lifetime. I was thoroughly impressed with the author's storytelling abilities, which were sad, thought-provoking and comical, which made it hard for me to even put down the book. It was really great to read a book about a Iranian feminist who lives her life the way she wants to live it. I was impressed by this book because the Western media gives the impression that all Muslim women are helpless, when in fact as one read this book, Muslim women are empowered and taking control of their lives.
A Worthy Sequel to "Persepolis" As the sequel to the critically acclaimed "Persepolis," 'The Return' traces the story of Marjane Satrapi's adolescent years spent wandering Vienna in hopes of beginning a new life in Europe before making her way back to Iran following a series of personal hardships.
Having found her time in Austria to be plagued by instability and lack of direction, Satrapi can no longer handle her lonely, miserable life and decides to go home to her loving family in Tehran. With the revolution having made steady headway since her departure for Europe, Marji finds a changed homeland that frustrates her even more with its ignorant laws based on religious decrees. Having lived for four years in a liberal democracy where civil liberties were expected and demanded by its citizenry, Satrapi has serious questions to ask herself about her future in a nation where an independent woman's identity and aspirations are "crushed by a government and a country's traditions."
I was certainly glad to see that this sequel's quality was up to par with that of its predecessor, and doubt that anyone who has already read "Persepolis" will be able to resist themselves from finding out how this wonderful story continues.Brilliant truth Satrapis first book found her as a young girl caught up in revolutionary Iran. She watches as her mother is stripped of a job and forced to donn religious idicoy to go about outside. It ends with her going to Europe. Now we learn what Europe had in stall for her, namely drugs, homosexuality(not her), sex, dating, liberalism, all those things that Iran was stripped of. So we follow her back to Iran, back to enforced Relgiouns clothing, back to a society created by the Left, a society where women are unequal, where religious fascism is the staple and where her ever reverent comic style can be once again put to good use to educate and enthrall the audience about the evils of Religiousity forced upon society.
What we see here is something more however, read between the lines this book says something deeper, namely that the same problems that enslave Iran, enslave Europe. In Europe young women turn to prostitution, drug use and sexually explicit clothing as a way to enslave themselves to modern society and men who have no honor. In Iran the smae enslavement is forced upon women by the government, in reverse order, the men are immoral, and women are closeted in Purdah. We see here the irony. In the free society(Europe) women throw away their earned freedoms in search of fulfilling mens sexual needs and their own psychiatric self hate. In Iran women were forced to throw away their freedom by a liberally supported Islamic revolution.
Which is better? We are not left with a clear answer, however the obvious one is that in a none religious society people may choose their own path, rather then have their clothing mandated by the government. This is a riveting account and a deep person will come to understand the choice facing the world and the choice facing the west in particular.
