Book Club Discusses Iranian Memoir and History of Comics

During the Book Club meeting, Henry Matthews presenting on Lebanese comic magazine

On December 13 in West Hall, the second AUB Book Club session of the year featured a discussion of the book, Persepolis, by Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi. The session also included a lecture by Henry Matthews on the history of Lebanese comic books.

Matthews, who is a painter and writer, as well as the deputy editor at the Office of Information and Public Relations, talked about his forthcoming book, History of Bissat El-Reeh Comics (1962-65, 1968, 1970). He explained how he discovered the magic of the visual art when his mother gave him an issue of Bissat El Rih (The Flying Carpet), an Arabic comic book for children. Matthews told the audience that the Lebanese comics magazine, long out of print, has become very important historically as a pan-Arab publication that set new standards of quality in publications destined for children of the Arab world.

As for the brilliantly evocative and lucid quality of Satrapi's non-fiction novel, there was general consensus. Published to wide critical acclaim in France, Persepolis is a wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution. A club member gave a brief overview of Satrapi's moving narrative, which vividly tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime and his dethronement, the Islamic revolution, the painful repercussions of war with Iraq, and the many aspects of oppression like state-sanctioned whippings. As the intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the descendant of one of Iran's last emperors, Satrapi describes her childhood as uniquely intertwined with the history of her country. The club attendees concluded that if Persepolis holds any power or meaning, it clearly comes from the heart as well as the mind, being both a story of personal and emotional growth as well as a stunning reminder of the social repercussions inflicted by repressive political regimes on people.