Book Review for Persepolis

The thesis of this book is to show what life was like growing up during the Iranian Revolution for Marjane Satrapi. The author did a good job of this because the reader gets a good picture of what went on during this time.

The book starts off when she is about five years old. She is a typical little girl, with dreams and ideas of little kids. When the Shah is overthrown, her country changes. Her family supports the change but when they realize what life will actually be like, their views change. Marjane strongly opposes the new government so her parents send her to Austria to finish her education in a safer place. She tries her best to make them proud and succeed but falls into drugs and alcohol and ends up homeless, so she returns home. She lives back in Iran for four years and gets married and divorced. At the end of the book, she leaves again and her mom forbids her from coming back.

The strengths of the book are that it cathces the interest of readers because it is a graphic novel and easy to read. It gives a good look into what life was like in Iran.

Some weaknesses are that some of the pictures had Farsi writing and if you don't know the language, you miss out. It also could have had more of an introduction in the front to explain things a little more.

Overall I liked the book and if you can have an open mind when reading it I would recommend it. This book can change your view on Muslims and Middle Easterners. You realize that they are people too and only a few of them are extreme and violent and it isn't fair to the rest of them to all have that stereotype.