Book Review: Chicken and Plums

Author Marjane Satrapi is known for the best selling Persepolis and its film adaptation. However, her excellence as an author and artist does not end there. Last year she wrote another memoir-esque book titled Chicken and Plums which follows the last week of her uncle's life. The graphic novel tells the story of her uncle Naser Aki Khan whose wife breaks his favorite instrument. After searching for a new instrument of the same quality, he realizes that there is none that will satisfy him. Having some to this realization, he decides that he will die and locks himself in his room for eight days before he finally passes. The graphic novel illustrates these last several days which include flashbacks to his troubled childhood, lost love, and marriage. These flashbacks give a helpful backstory to his current relationships with his wife, brother, sister, and children all of whom come to his bedside and try to persuade him to live. Overall, the novel can be summarized by the statement that one of his friends makes "to live, it's not enough to be alive". Though Nasser Aki Khan has lived a life, his flashbacks and reflections show that he may never have been alive.

Though the story is simplistic and the ending is told within the first few pages, it is truly a musing on life and the importance of living. The drawings are equally simplistic but are beautiful and typical of Satrapi's style. Similar to her other books, with the exception of Persepolis, few events actually occur. Yet, the drama is within the characters and their relationships with each other. Perhaps what is most astonishing, is that all of the characters in her novels are not only factual but they are all within her own family. Though her characters are uniquely her own, one can easily identify with certain people and recognize themselves or loved ones in her characterizations. At only 96 pages this is the shortest of her books, readers should not disregard it. In fact, it is just as powerful and moving as her longer novels and resonates with the reader weeks after one has finished reading. Satrapi is able to give the reader a snapshot of only a few days in a person's life and yet make the reader feel as if he/she has been the witness to his entire life and corresponding relationships. Thus by reflecting on Nasser's life, the reader is also reflecting on his/er own.

Obviously, I would recommend this to an Satrapi fan. Consequently, I would also recommend it to those who were a bit put off by the political issues in Persepolis but still enjoyed her graphic style and her way of storytelling. In many ways, it is hard to recommend Satrapi's work to others because it is so unique in art and text. However, I do believe that any philosophy fans or readers who enjoy psychologically twisted characters would find this work to be a wonderful piece to discuss and debate with like-minded friends (or even just to contemplate with yourself).

-DLP