Persepolis' is an astonishing retelling of the author's youth during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Gross horrors occur including bombings, murders, arrests and riots but what is so extraordinary about Marjane Satrapi's story is how otherwise it is so ordinary. She experiments with cigarettes, listens to punk music and hangs posters on her walls -- all the trimmings of an American adolescent's life. This gives 'Persepolis' a universal appeal, an accessability that makes the differences all the more shocking. The stark reality that Satrapi and her family live in constant danger is effecting, and it will not leave you when you put the book down. The style Satrapi uses in her drawings clearly sets the tone of her story. There is a childish innocence to the illustrations perfectly suited to the worldview of our narrator, herself a child at the beginning. Her gradual awakening to the ways of the world has all of the truth and optimism that make 'To Kill a Mockingbird' the classic it is today. 'Persepolis' earns its place among stories like that and 'The Catcher in the Rye'. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
