Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

This weekend, I was completely without wifi and access to the internet (okay, I had some access. But I only used it for emails.), so I had plenty of time to catch up on some reading. I’m still slowly but surely making my way through A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, which is amazing, but to give myself something new to work on, I read Persepolis, which I’d heard a lot of good things about.

In the past I haven’t been super into graphic novels, for whatever reason, but I’ve been starting to get into them. I’m glad this one was one of the first I read, because it set the bar pretty high; it was both funny and educational, without being super preachy.

               

The rundown: This is Marjane Strapi’s first of four autobiographical graphic novels (and there are more in the works) about growing up in Iran through several years of the Islamic Revolution. It juxtaposes the tension and fear during those years with downright funny anecdotes of her younger years, stories everyone will recognize in themselves. There are stories like the time she got pulled over by the women’s branch of the Guardians of the Revolution:

Or the time she went protesting with her parents:

All of which give a great insight into the events which were happening at the time (and now) as well as the life of a relatable young girl.

I highly recommend this to any level of reader; even though for some younger readers it might be difficult to completely wrap their minds around some of the political events that went by so quickly at the beginning of the novel (I even had a little trouble), I don’t think it in any way impedes the essence of the book or the messages it portrays.

Definitely going to pick up the sequels. 4/5

The Magic Toyshop

Oh man, what do I love more than a young, plucky female protagonist? It’s always refreshing to have one not only in my own personal reading, but in my syllabi at school. I had no idea what to expect when we started The Magic Toyshop, but finding out the protagonist was a spirited fifteen-year-old girl had me ready to dive in.

This book made me even more scared of swans. Thanks, college. 

This book was capital-C Creepy and capital-D Disturbing (what I’m assuming the author was going for). We talked a lot about this book in conversation with Gothic novels—it’s got similar imagery and a literal creepy uncle.

                
What this book does that’s really interesting is that it unabashedly tackles a lot of issues at once without being too overwhelming. There’s the Gothic element, the damsel-in-distress problems (in two characters, interestingly enough), and the “typical” teenage-girl-finding-herself issues. That last one doesn’t seem cliché in this book, though, because Carter writes about Melanie’s problems in such a way that you don’t feel like they’re the same problems you’ve read over and over again.

                
A lot of people in class were pretty disturbed by the protagonist’s blatant ownership of her sexuality. Right off the bat, Melanie (who is fifteen at the beginning of the novel) takes possession of her own body. She’s not ashamed to talk about herself—something that’s refreshing to see. Remember all those Judy Blume books you read as a kid? This is those books, sped up times a hundred and mixed together with a mysterious/creepy/fascinating story of two groups of siblings and their attempts to escape the tyranny of the patriarch of the house.

4/5

Your Fave Could Never: Texts From Jane Eyre

After reading some very disturbing short stories for my South Asian Lit class, I took a break and started Texts From Jane Eyre. I was not disappointed.

Usually I get really defensive when people make fun of my favorite books, but in this case, I couldn’t stop laughing. Mallory Ortberg clearly loves the books she’s spoofing, which definitely adds to the flavor and voice of the book. Even though I hadn’t read every novel she covered, I was still amused by every one of them. Part of what made it enjoyable was that she was making fun of the White Male Canon, showing the weaknesses of the characters that some people consider the do-all, end-all of literature. As Ortberg puts it, “The canon is just brimming with so many wonderful, selfish assholes.”

From the Pride and Prejudice chapter, which made my roommate laugh so hard she cried.

One of the weaker parts of the book, I felt, was that a lot of the chapters seemed like they had the same voice. Maybe I can chalk that up to the fact that I breezed through the book (though it’s a nice size, the large font and layout mean it’s actually not as long as I’d thought when I bought it), but it seemed like a lot of the humor lay in USING ALL CAPS for multiple characters, and for one side of the conversation to be the “crazy” lead character talking to the dry, witty side character.

That being said, I love this book and I’m recommending it to anyone who wants a comfortable read about books they love.

4/5