Graphic Truths

The modesty and straightforwardness of the book only emphasize the complexity of the girl’s family history—she is the great-granddaughter of a former emperor, though her parents are Marxists—and of the political situation in Iran. When she informs the reader that a theatre has burned to the ground, her articulation of the politics underlying the tragedy leads to a simple moral declaration: “The bbc said there were 400 victims. The Shah said that a group of religious fanatics perpetrated the massacre. But the people knew that it was the Shah’s fault!!!”

Even the most mundane family situations are informed by political events. The night of the theatre incident, Satrapi, clad in heart-patterned pyjamas, pads into her parents bedroom. Like any inquisitive child, she has been listening at the door.

“I want to come with you tomorrow,” she says.

“Where”

“To demonstrate in the street. I am sick and tired of doing it in the garden.”

“It is very dangerous. They shoot people.”

“For a revolution to succeed, the entire population must support it!”

“You can participate later on.”

“Sure, sure, when it’s all over.”

In the second volume of her memoir, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, Satrapi takes us to Vienna, where she has been sent to finish high school. There she learns that extremism is not confined to her native land, and struggles to adapt her liberal Iranian upbringing to the even-more-liberal Western values she encounters. In one image, she sits stiffly on the corner of the couch while her roommate and a boyfriend cuddle in their underwear next to her. She eventually returns home, where she discovers that behind closed doors, far from being the extremist dupes she has come to see them as, many Iranians are working out, shopping, and partying. The parties may end with a deadly police raid, but the scenes are otherwise stunningly familiar.