Marjane Satrapi – Embroideries
70. Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi (2005)
Length: 144 pages
Genre: Graphic Novel, Non-Fiction/mini-Memoir
Started / Finished: 21 June 2010
Where did it come from? The library.
Why do I have it? I enjoyed Persepolis, so I wanted to see what else Satrapi had done.
Gossip is gossip,
and it’s pretty much the same
wherever you go.
Summary: Marjane, her mother, her grandmother, her aunt, and their friends gather for an afternoon of tea and conversation, and, as groups of women are wont to do, they wind up discussing men, love, sex, and marriage both in and out of Iran, and swapping stories of faked virginities, infidelities, plastic surgeries, and arranged marriages.
Review: Graphic novels work because they strike a balance between text and picture, with each complementing the other, and the combination adding something more than the sum of their parts. There’s a delicate balance between what parts of the story you tell through words, and what parts through pictures, but when a graphic novel is done right, that balancing act should be invisible. In Embroideries, there’s a distinct imbalance between the words and the pictures, and the words are clearly winning. It’s a very text-heavy book, but just enough is told through the pictures that I can’t really call it an illustrated story, either, and this imbalance wasn’t what I was expecting, and didn’t sit quite comfortably with me as I read it. The stories themselves were interesting enough, although not particularly meaty. It sort of seemed like the take-home message was “Iranian women talk about sex, too,” which… I think I already knew that from reading Reading Lolita in Tehran. 3 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: It was cute and fast-reading and interesting enough, but it’s not nearly up to the standard Satrapi set for herself with Persepolis.
Other Reviews: American Bibliophile, Beth Fish Reads, Estella’s Revenge, Joyfully Retired, A Striped Arm Chair, Things Mean a Lot, Valentina’s Room
Have you reviewed this book? Leave a comment with the link and I’ll add it in.
First Line: “It was really delicious! Thank you.”