Persepolis

The simplified drawing of Persepolis was a nice contrast to the heavy subject matter, but the graphic novel itself was a very boring read. Like “Fun Home”, it was a memoir and like “Maus” it had political significance was was arguably educational. There wasn’t much about that was enjoyable, however which made it difficult for me to keep reading. Cultural and political revolution from a child’s point of view is always interesting, however, Persepolis seemed to quickly fall into a formula. The main character would learn just enough about a subject to feel informed, then approach the adults or other members of the community with her knowledge and find out she was really ignorant. It was a simple device the author used to illustrate her points about how absurd religion and politics could often be, however it got tiresome pretty fast. Also, while the drawings were simple, they weren’t especially appealing. There wasn’t anything very unique about the style, and the composition of the panels was often visually noisy and jarring. Persepolis was definitely my least favorite of the novels I’ve read this semester.