Book Review: Persepolis II

After reading the first Persepolis, I could not help but read the second. I wanted more about Marj and her family and the sequel gave me just that. In this book, we meet up with Marj in Austria where she has been sent by her parents in order to keep her safe and away from Iran. She is supposed to be living with a family friend and attending school. However, the family friend cannot afford to keep Marj in their small apartment and so she is sent to a convent. Her independence and rebellious spirit eventually forces her to leave and find residence in an apartment which also ends poorly. She falls in love but is betrayed which causes her to turn to drugs and life on the streets. Eventually, she returns to Iran where she finally feels at home but even those warm feelings do not last in the post-war Iran.

While the first Persepolis is about Marj’s developing identity as an Iranian during the revolution, this installment centers on Marj’s personal growth and the friction it causes with her Iranian background. She must endure extremely painful relationships in order to find a way to love herself and her homeland though both are broken (and at times seem to be beyond repair). Though Marj's travels take her across Europe and back to Iran, any reader can relate to her self-discovery and the struggles that she faces with herself and her country.

-DLP