Persepolis I & II

“In every religion, you find the same extremists. Once again, I arrived at my usual conclusion: one must educate oneself.” ― Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi..#NadirasPointOfReview: What a kickstart to 2017! Three reading goals in one book: Memoir (my fave genre), Ethnic story by an ethnic writer (from and based in Iran), Graphic Novel (my very first!). Immensely loved this book. It's the story of the author and her childhood during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Marjane then proceeds to escape to Vienna for a better life... only to return to Iran after 4 years... The book was released into 4 volumes. However, I bought The Complete Persepolis which had all of it together. I recommend to buy this one, instead of separate volumes..Cons: The politics bit went above my head at times. The font maybe a lil tiny for some people. Author's viewpoints, Iran's internal policies DO NOT represent Islam. Islam is not an extreme religion. It's the fanatics and extremists who make it so. In a religion followed by 1 billion out of worlds' total 6 billion population...the extremists make up a small %. So plz dont judge it by its people. Judge it by its Quranic teachings..Pros: The comic-strip adaptation was an excellent way of conveying this poignant story. Breezy page-turner. Perfectly suitable for readers like me with short attention span. Very humorous at times. Adorable yet perfect expressions in the graphics. Serious and sad story. Author fearlessly expresses her viewpoints without withholding anything back. 500 pgs full of words and prose sometimes fail to convey a story as well as 300pgs of comic strip can! I found tears rolling down my eyes at some points. Marjane's cool & supportive parents and grandparents are so lovable too.Very entertaining eye-opener. Highly recommend it! 5-stars.follow me on instagram @nadirasworld

When you read this one, stop and pause for the grandmother's one real advice she gave the author when she was young.I am quite impressed with how the author presented so many events that happened in her life in just a little over 300 pages!However, my only issue is this:Damn the small fonts. It was a real struggle. Otherwise I like how well written and illustrated this memoir is.I don't have much to say about the political events mentioned or comment on the personallife of the author in the book.I just loved reading about the family bonding, especially between her and her mother, that between her and her father. I love the grandmother so much.Reading this memoir gave me some rare life lessons.Tips to read this graphic memoir:*Expect only black ink blunt illustrations/artstyle*Expect easy to get into writing*See the people in this as real and be more understanding towards them*Take your time to read it*If you are a beginner and cannot enjoy the book, close it and read it after a year or so. But read this graphic memoir once.

Amazing tale of an Iranian ex-royal family embroiled in politics of their land, as seen from a child's perspective. Not a comic, very graphic in a way though with quite many shades of humour. Great style of writing - Satrapi's picturization is sometimes as or more humorous than her words. Masterpiece work. Gives you a glimpse into the one of those lives amongst the many others on our planet, that people tend to group and generalize without sensitivity, into some not so great category & try to relegate them to some corner of their mind - & to their affairs & seemingly endless & frequent strifes they then sadly pay least attention to. Thus somewhere one may tend to forget how so human each of us are, across the world, despite all our seemingly endless differences & divergant lifestyles, cultures, experiences, tastes & opinions. As the gritty author writes in her preface itself, one can forgive but not forget - as lessons each of us learn is the lessons learnt by humanity. The book gave the sense yet again that the world history has an innate rhythm across the countries - seeming cycles like weak gaining strength & vice versa in the never ending loops we call life. Must read, friends - I will recommend it to anyone especially during the current age we live in where we need more understanding towards each other at least to prevent another self annihilation of humanity at the hands of humanity out of greed, hatred, differences et al

“The story of a Childhood and The story of a return” – the tagline sounds enticing and made me pick up the book to read.This is a semi-autobiographical novel that focuses on the authors’ personal journey giving an insight into the lives of people living in a war-torn country. Well-illustrated this book is deceptively simple which keeps the reader engrossed.When I picked up this book, I had no idea it would result in the churning of my thoughts. Little did I know that the whimsical drawings would be a moving account of a spirited young girl who grew up in revolutionary wartime Iran only to leave the country and then return.Laced with humour, it tends to camouflage the seriousness and rich complexity of the story. Funny and tragic, light-hearted yet intense – it is not preachy as one would expect it to be. The author has ably shown the contrasts that exist in a person’s life – tradition with modernism, Iranian to European. It paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran – it condenses a whole country’s tragedy into one poignant scene after another. A story of humour, compassion, and heartbreaks.No wonder it has been translated into 12 languages.

Just read it.... If you are intelligent and have a sense of humor you will like it