I heard a lot about this book, mainly from the rising popularity of the movie “Precious”. Initially I did not have much interest the movie, but a co-worker brought the book to work so I took a look at it. It was an easy read and looked very well written, so I decided to check it out.

Today, I'll start reading Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi.

Persepolis is an illustrated coming-of-age-autobiography. It's a graphic novel/graphic memoir about Satrapi's experience growing up during the Iranian Revolution.

Usually the subject matter for graphic novels and comics stays in the realm of sci-fi and fantasy-- things that most people (except the geekiest among us) would consider "made up" or "not true". I'm totally in love with the idea of using graphic novels to tackle experiences that happen to people in real life.

I hope the graphic novel becomes more accepted as a literary genre.

Comics and graphic novels have been the new "in" thing, in some progressive contemporary writing circles: think people like Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Russell Edson. Jonathan Safran Foer, for instance, in a novel he wrote about a kid who tries to come to terms with his fathers death on September 11th, includes a comic flip book at the end of the novel. When you flip the pages, you witness (thanks to an interpretation drawn by the main character's child-like hands) an airplane hit the Towers, the Towers catch on fire, and a stick figure of the kid's father falling, falling, falling.

The name of that novel btw, is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Foer is a smart, refreshing, writer. Funny, too. His first novel, Everything is Illuminated, is brilliant. It's all about being Jewish (Foer is) and trying to understand your family's history and culture from the perspective of a twenty-something who was raised on MTV.  I think Foer wrote his first novel when he was 28. To most writers, pumping out a novel in your 20's is young-- young or not, Foer is the real deal. He's oh...32 now?

Back to Satrapi.

Lots of provocative things going on when a writer chooses to weave autobiography and graphic novels together. I'm interested in listening to Satrapi and finding out why she made the choice.

On the cover of Persepolis, there's an illustration of Satrapi in veiled head covering. She's frowning. Flipping through the book, I see more than a few pages that deal with the restrictions and reasons and rebellions and support that come with the veil in Iran. The controversy of the veil (what it means, how for some it has religious meaning and for others not) is here to stay. So. I'm all ears about how Satrapi weighs in. From my quick skim of the book, I get the feeling that it wasn't a welcome addition in Satrapi's family.

The current, on-going, rupturing in Iran that was triggered by the elections has been the subject of a few Satrapi tweets and blogs about Iranian politics.

In the preface to Persepolis, Satrapi writes:

"...This old and great civilization has been discussed mostly in connection with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism. As an Iranian who has lived more than half of my life in Iran, I know that this image is far from truth. This is why writing Persepolis was so important to me. I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. I also don't want those Iranians who lost their lives in prison defending freedom, who died in the war against Iraq, who suffered under various repressive regimes, or who were forced to leave their families and flee their homeland to be forgotten."

Satrapi's preface explains, in a quick nutshell, a lot about Iran. It's another lens to view the current political and social climate....

I checked this book out in February 2007. How do I know that? Because I had a fine on my library card for it when I went to check it out again.  I have seen this book in passing many times over the past two years.  Most recently, a passenger on the Metro had it in hand.  The determined stare of Ms. Ali on the cover never left my mind.  The axiom that magazines subscribe to has truth to it:  people respond to seeing the eyes.   If you want to sell a cover, show the eyes.  Her eyes stood out to me.

I know very little about her except that she was a political leader born in Somalia and was now living under armed guards in the United States.  She looked rather young.

I'm reading this book because I want to know who she is, what she has done and what that piercing yet gentle stare means.   

My cover thoughts before reading this book:  I had never heard of the book before a friend mentioned it, and was tickled by the name.  I wondered was this a famous person I should know about and I had not heard about the author Junot Diaz either. It's interesting because this book was released in 2007, and this seems to be a theme of recent for me. I just finished another book, Infidel, that was written in 2007.

I flipped through the pages and noticed what looked like doodling by a high school student who has a slight artistic eye.  That stood out for me. There is lots of acclaim for the Pulitizer prize winning work, especially because he had only published a short story, Drown, before this first novel- and the novel had won a Pulitizer. Quite impressive to me. 

When I thumbed through the pages, I remember seeing a chapter heading called, Ghetto Nerd, and thought about all the people I could put in that category.  It seemed this book was perfect for a number of young boys and men that could relate. How was a woman like me going to relate? I must admit that whether I try to or not, I am inclined to a woman's point of view in a story so the point of view of Oscar will be very interesting.

Here goes...

I didn't think too much about this before reading, I heard it was good. We'll see...