CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Books

All-Time High Scores
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Books In Our Forums

 

Upcoming & Recent Releases

sort by name sort by score

 

Upcoming & Recent Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed books.

 

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Persepolis 2
The Story Of A Return
by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis 2 reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 84 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.6 out of 10
based on 11 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?
based on 6 votes
read user comments
rate this book

The Iranian author told the story of her early childhood via highly stylized (stark, black-and-white) comics in the acclaimed "Persepolis," and this sequel picks up where that book left off, finding Satrapi returning to deal with life in Tehran after spending time studying abroad in Europe, trading in a life of partying and personal exploration for a new life behind a veil.

Pantheon, 192 pages
08/31/2004
$17.95

ISBN: 0375422889

Nonfiction
Biographies & Memoirs

NOTES:
Translated from French by Anjali Singh.

What The Critics Said

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Boston Globe Carlo Wolff
A distinctive combination of the stark and the friendly, Satrapi's casually dramatic graphics are clear, informative, and warm.
Read Full Review
Entertainment Weekly Nisha Gopalan
If the first ''Persepolis'' told of the disillusionment of living under a veil of Islamic extremism in Iran, Persepolis 2 is a paean to what the author left behind.
Read Full Review
Publishers Weekly
Poignant and unflinching, this is a universally insightful coming-of-age story. [21 Jun 2004, p.58]
San Francisco Chronicle Sandip Roy
What is astonishing about Satrapi's work is that with evocative drawings and minimal use of words, it creates immensely sympathetic and real characters.
Read Full Review
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Lisa Gabriele
Marjane Satrapi's book is powerful, not just because it's about the inability to go home again, but because she shows just how criminal it is to be forced to leave home to begin with. [4 Sep 2004, p.D6]
The New York Times Book Review Luc Sante
It would have made a stirring document no matter how it was told, but the graphic form, with its cinematic motion and its style as personal as handwriting, endows it with a combination of dynamism and intimacy uniquely suited to a narrative at once intensely subjective and world-historical.
Read Full Review
Booklist Ray Olson
Satrapi's high-contrast, bold-lined, stencilish artwork remains very much at the service of one of the most compelling youth memoirs of recent years. [Aug 2004, p.1916]
New York Review Of Books Patricia Storace
She is a rare kind of artist, one who makes use not only of her talents, but a disciplined, deliberate use of her imperfections as a verbal and visual stylist, not attempting to conceal them, but to incorporate them as part of her subject.
Read Full Review
Los Angeles Times Laurel Maury
The art, though less mature in "Persepolis," was more visceral. However, "Persepolis 2" has a better story. [15 Aug 2004, p.R9]
Slate Douglas Wolk
Too often, Persepolis 2 is more interesting for the circumstances of its teller than for its actual telling. Its flatness serves Satrapi's intentions as a visual artist, but there's not much depth to its narrative, either.
Read Full Review
The Onion A.V. Club Tasha Robinson
As dramatic and traumatic as Satrapi finds her experiences, much of Persepolis 2 feels both self-serving and alienating.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this book is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ayvideh gave it a10:
Great book. I think for you to truly appreciate it you need to have lived through it. As I read her book the images that I once lived through suddenly became alive before my eyes. I cried and laughed through each page. Finally everything that happened to me started to made sense. Thank you for this book.

David V gave it a5:
Overrated. It tries to be a touching story, but it just isn't. By trying to write it like maus she made my expections to high. but the story is weak and boring.

Kaiti L gave it a10:
I was only an 16 when I first read this. It deeply affected me. I was seeing the Iran conflict through the yees of a girl who was just like me. I love it. I hope others can relate to this too.

Anupama k gave it an8:
A touching story told with a delicate sensitivity and oodles of talent

Discuss this book in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: World News | Fantasy Football | Amy Winehouse | Baseball | E3 | Batman | Firefox 3 | iPhone 3G

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use