Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Title: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
Author: Marjane Satrapi
Genre: Graphic Novel
Page Count: 153
Why I read it: graphic novel challenge
Grade: B

Synopsis:
Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

My review:
As with any graphic novel, I must comment on the artwork.  After all, that is why I read them.  Other people probably have different reasons for reading graphic novels, but for me it's the combination of getting to read a story while looking at art.  So, if the art's not good, I don't care how interesting the story is, I'm not going to love the book.  All that being said, I did not care for the artwork in Persepolis.  I think I've mentioned a few times that I like the more realistic artwork.  And I definitely like for it to be colorful.  So the black and white cartoonish art didn't really bring out the love for me.

BUT, I can't imagine this graphic novel with the kind of artwork that I like.  I'm not sure that it would have worked.  The pictures seemed to match the story here.  And the story was very interesting.  I liked reading about this time period and this bit of history, which I really didn't know much about, told from the perspective of a young girl.  Obviously the author didn't write it as a young girl.  She's an adult, writing of her young girl memories, so it's not quite right to say it's from the perspective of a young girl.  But still, it was very well written.

I would recommend this to graphic novel readers, and to those who are looking to get into reading graphic novels.