Here There Be Books (BL)

Originally posted at Here There Be Books on June 21, 2013.This is my second Marjane Satrapi book, and it is VERY different from Persepolis. Persepolis had a wider angled lens (life before and after the 1979 revolution); Embroideries ostensibly takes place during a single conversation between M. Satrapi's friends and family, though of course it spreads out a bit through those conversations. They talk about love and life (in concrete details/stories), about "embroideries,"[1. "reconstructive" surgery on your lady bits.] about what it means to be a woman in Iran, about LOTS of great stuff that, on the surface, doesn't seem to add up to as solid a storyline as in Persepolis.However, that's totally untrue! Okay, maybe it's not as historically interesting (as a revolution) that M. Satrapi's aunt married multiple times. BUT it's an insight into the lives of people who have lived (and do live?) through extraordinary events, and even the "mundane" stuff is interesting when told by that sort of person. Plus, Marjane Satrapi has the BEST FAMILY EVER. It's like every person in it has done 6x more awesome stuff than any other person. Embroideries also talks about people who weren't really in Persepolis, like some of her cousins and a really cool aunt. It was very neat meeting new "characters," especially when they're kickass.So, okay, maybe you won't learn much about the wider history of Iran. But you'll learn a lot about (some of) the people living there, and what their lives are like. You'll learn about what they worry about, what they hope for, their dreams and disappointments. I really liked that it was entirely a conversation between women, too, because I don't think there's enough coverage about women's lives in Iran outside of how it intersects with the government. (Not that I'm well-up on current events in Iran.)Art-wise, Embroideries felt more like a zine than a "proper" comic. It's a little rough, more light pages/empty spaces. It feels handmade and very cool. I liked it! (I've always like comic zines, though I haven't read nearly enough.) Again, it's a whole different feel from Persepolis, which has a lot of dark pages/spaces filled up with black. I'm sure that's significant in some way, don't you think? I enjoyed reading Embroideries, and I'd love to read more books like it!