Neil Fein's Blog

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
by Marjane Satrapi

In Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi told us, through vignettes and interlocked snips of her life in Iran, the story of growing up in a country beset by a revolutionary cabal in power, yet brought up by parents who valued free expression. Volume 2, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, is not about the escape from Iran so much as it is about Marjane's escape from her own insecurities.

The book is at once disappointing and enlightening. I felt, for the first time, that I understood why someone would continue to live in a country beset by a religious fundamentalist government. While Ms. Satrapi delves further into the history of her home country, the volume shines when she shows us her final decisions about where and how she will live her life in a true coming-of-age saga. Being a cosmopolitan Iranian young woman in Europe is far more complicated a life than one might even suppose. This is illustrated particularly in scenes with an Islamic cleric who asks such questions as "did you wear the veil abroad?" and values her honest answer. Her secular education also proceeds, and scenes of life drawing of a woman whose body is hidden under layers of black cloth is both hilarious and pitiful.

While this feels like the middle chapter of a story, there have been no plans announced for a third chapter. Perhaps the author has yet to fully live it.

I heartily recommended this book to all, although you might get more out of it having read the first volume. The Persepolis saga fits easily in company with such works as Maus, A Contract with God, V for Vendetta, and Sandman.

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