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.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Boston Globe Carlo Wolff
A distinctive combination of the stark and the friendly, Satrapi's casually dramatic graphics are clear, informative, and warm.
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Outstanding
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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.
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
Poignant and unflinching, this is a universally insightful coming-of-age story. [21 Jun 2004, p.58]
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Outstanding
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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.
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Outstanding
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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]
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Outstanding
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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.
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Favorable
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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]
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Favorable
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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.
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Favorable
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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]
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Mixed
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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.
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Mixed
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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.
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