Sunday, August 31, 2008

Book Club Discussion: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

As you know, this month we read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a graphic memoir about her childhood in war-torn Iran. However, this month I'm going to try something a little different to see if we can get more participation in the comment section. Today I'm going to post a couple of questions to see what you all thought of the book and you can feel free to ask your own questions as well. Then tomorrow I'll post my review of the book. So, here goes:

What did you think of the book?

Were you surprised by the ending? Were you hoping for more?

If you saw the movie, how did it compare to the book?

What do you think of Satrapi's decision to write this book as a graphic novel?

How much did you know about the history of Iran before going into this book?

What did you think of the illustrations? Were they what you had expected?

Do you plan to read the sequels? Also, do you think you'll read other graphic novels?

What were your favorite parts of the book? What surprised you most?

Feel free to answer only a couple or all of these questions. The idea here is to get you thinking and talking about the book. I want to know what you thought and felt as you read this book. Also, please let me know if you've already reviewed this book so I can link to it in tomorrow's post.

Thanks!

5 comments:

katrina said...

I read and reviewed this book at my site a few months ago, and thought it was fantastic. I quickly picked up the sequel, which was good but nowhere near as good as the first one, however, I'm glas I read it as I wanted to know what happened in the end.
This was one of my first graphic novels and promted me to pick up others which deal with real life, I have since read Yossel, about the Ghetto in Warsaw and Blankets a graphic novel about loneliness, religion and first love, all reviewed in my pages.
Persepolis and Yossel both deal with the horror of war and oppression, I was shocked by how much the images and the sparse use of language could be so powerful, especially as the pics in Persepolis are so simply drawn. The simplicity added to the notion that this was a childs view of the war.I have the dvd on order, and hope to see it soon

beastmomma said...

Hello Becca,
I have not finished the book yet, but I did write about it for two sunday salon posts. Here is the link to the latest post which has a link to the first one:
http://beastmomma.squarespace.com/from-shelf-to-hand/2008/8/31/the-sunday-salon-22-pesepolis-week-2.html

I am going to try to read a bit more of the book and then answer your questions in a bit.

Kim L said...

I just watched the movie last night, and now I do want to read these books. I was hoping for more when I got to the ending. It wasn't abrupt, but it seemed like there was probably more that the author could have added if she had wanted to.

I'm assuming the graphic novel illustrations are similar to the style of the movie, and I really like the fact she did it in that style instead of a traditional memoir. It gave a lot of interest to the story.

Anonymous said...

You'll find my comments on my blog:
http://plus.over-blog.com/article-22428807.html

beastmomma said...

Sorry I am so late with my responses. Here are the answer to your questions:
Were you surprised by the ending? Were you hoping for more?

I was surprised by the ending, but I think it is a good stopping point for this chapter of the character's life.

If you saw the movie, how did it compare to the book?

The movie took material from other books because her journeyed continued from where the book left off. In the movie, I also enjoyed the soundtrack.

What do you think of Satrapi's decision to write this book as a graphic novel?

Writing the book as a graphic novel helped the author address some controversial issues in a non-threatening manner.

How much did you know about the history of Iran before going into this book?

I did not know very much about the history of Iran before seeing the book. However, I got some context because I saw the author in television interviews and had seen the movie before reading the book.

What did you think of the illustrations? Were they what you had expected?

I thought that the illustrations were very descriptive. I especially enjoyed the facial expressions and several statements that appeared at the bottom of some pictures.

Do you plan to read the sequels? Also, do you think you'll read other graphic novels?

Yes, i plan to read the sequels. I just do not know when :) Also, I hope to read more graphic novels in the future.

What were your favorite parts of the book? What surprised you most?

My favorite parts of the book were the contrast between the time the main character spent with her family and how she tried to use that information to impress her friends or to fit in with her social group.