The Inkblotter at The King’s English

It hasn’t been once a week, despite my promise, has it? Well, this time you get a two-fer! I’ve been reading Marjane Satrapi, and it has been fascinating.

I started with Embroideries, mostly because there are so many and I just had no idea where to start. It’s a great introduction to Satrapi’s style: simple black and white images, accompanied by straight-forward dialogue and narration. Embroideries is not for the bashful — this is a very frank (very very very frank) look at sex, marriage, and a modern woman’s life in the Middle East. It’s an interesting portrait of strong women with strong opinions, which is not what we’re commonly presented with. For anyone interested in knowing more about being a woman in the Middle East, Embroideries is a great choice.
Of course, her most famous work is on Persepolis (1 & 2). The Complete Persepolis just came in, and is well worth a look. It seems (who knew!) that they’re making a movie, and the cover art is from the movie. It’s an interesting contrast to the novel’s illustrations — they’ve smoothed things out a bit, while still retaining the simplicity and starkness.

The story follows Marjane from her childhood in Tehran during and after the Islamic Revolution, to her move to Austria for school and then return to Tehran as an adult. Her portrayal of the impact of religious upheaval on an otherwise normal child is compelling and startling, and the struggles she faces in leaving her home and family are provocative and sad. A broken relationship leaves her in an identity crisis, sends her out on the streets, and then eventually back to her family, where she has to readjust to Islamic rule all over again.

These books are windows on a world not often seen, and Marjane Satrapi is a competent guide.

Laika, by Nick Abadzis, was a surprise for me. I picked it up because it came first alphabetically in my hunt for Graphic Novels for Grownups. I wasn’t even sure I liked the style. But as I read, I began to appreciate the simplicity and grit of the illustrations, and became fully involved in the story.

Abadzis brings us the launch of Sputnik II, the story bouncing between three main characters: Korolev, the launch director, Yelena, the woman in charge of the test dogs for the space program, and Laika, the stray who will become the first being in space. I hate to admit it, but I teared up a bit at the end — that’s how attached you get. It’s an amazing story, one I knew almost nothing about before reading, and one I’m now inspired to hunt up on Wikipedia and in the bookstore.

This is a great book not just for grownups, but also for high school (while it’s a pretty clean read, there are some adult themes — drinking, persecution, and abandonment among others). One of the ways I got through my college history classes was to find historical fiction about the period I was studying, and I think the same method can be applied here. Often it’s a struggle to get kids interested in history — this is one graphic novel that could be a solution!

The graphic novel is increasingly becoming less about improbably proportioned superheroes in tights, and more about real people’s real issues. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, which examines the fraught complexity of the father-daughter relationship, and Art Spiegelman’s brilliantly simple Maus, detailing his father’s struggles during the Holocaust, are excellent examples of what I’ve begun to call Graphic Novels for Grown-Ups. There are lots out there, and so I’ve decided to start a series of reviews specifically about them!

Right now, I’m contemplating working my way through our Graphic Novel section in alphabetical order by author. I solemnly promise one a week. Starting next week. Or the week after that…