Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

Earlier this year, I read Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi. Essentially, I had read Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi because I had heard so many wonderful things about this book and also because it has been a banned book and wanted to see what all the fuss was about it. 

I liked reading Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, so, I decided to continue reading the follow up graphic novel, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi.

I actually liked reading Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi more than I did the first novel. Once again, I found the artwork inside Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return to be wonderfully expressive... A picture is worth a thousand words as they say!

The following is a blurb about Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return from Goodreads:

In Persepolis, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day,” Marjane Satrapi dazzled us with her heartrending memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Here is the continuation of her fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran.

As funny and poignant as its predecessor, Persepolis 2 is another clear-eyed and searing condemnation of the human cost of fundamentalism. In its depiction of the struggles of growing up—here compounded by Marjane’s status as an outsider both abroad and at home—it is raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.

I am giving Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi a rating of 4 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!