Saturday 14 April 2012
Book Review: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
PERSEPOLIS is a GREAT BOOK ! This book is not only funny, witty with it's raw honesty, but it's a great insight into the Iranian culture. A young girl, MARJANE, flees Iran during the Islamic Revolution and goes to Austria,she tries very hard to fit, including finding a group of friends that are " anarchists" and becoming her High School's Pot Dealer. She falls in love, gets thrown out of her apartment for theft and lives on the Vienna streets for awhile. She becomes very ill and has to go to the hospital, finally, fed up of her life in Austria and longing for her homeland Iran, she returns home.
Once home, ironically, she encounters the same culture shock she experienced in Vienna, Austria. Feeling very judged by her previous classmates and feel the malaise of not fitting in, she decides to end her life, when she fails at that, she sees it as a sign from the universe that she is supposed to live, and after that she has a rebirth. She re-invents herself and becomes a life affirming Aerobics Instructor, a sophisticated woman who wears make up, drinks and has a boyfriend. She ends up getting married to her beloved, and finally when the Iranian politics get too intense and her freedom as a woman more and more oppressive, family pleads her to leave Iran for good. She ends up moving back to Paris and becomes a successful graphic designer
Persepolis is a wonderfully, humorous, biographical account of Marjane Satrapi's life. I like the character Persepolis, she's feisty,bold and intelligent. She is also very funny and there are many favorite parts of the book, one is when the Nuns tell her, " Iranians don't have any manners", and she feisty replies, " All nuns used to be prostitutes. Another part, while reading the book Marjane's Mother's favorite, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex she pees to get the man's perspective, just as De Beauvoir suggested. I found myself laughing out loud to the surprise of many an onlooker on the bus, but I didn't care this book was just too entertaining.
Marjane is a great heroine, among the great heroines in Literature, Scarlette O'Hara, Jane Eyre and Gwyneth Harlow. Persepolis is a GREAT book, and like all GREAT books they can be read over and over again.
All blogs are written by Sabrina Rongstad-Bravo More Tales and Adventures in Sabrina's London Diaries
Saturday 29 October 2011
Book Review: Tolstoy -The Resurrection
Tolstoy, Leo. The Resurrection. New York: Penguin Classics, 1966.
In Tolstoy’s The Resurrection, the protagonist, Prince Nekhlyudov realizes that the young innocent woman in the jury trial, who is now being sentenced to ten years of penal servitude in Siberia, is his once beloved lover Katusha, who he had impregnated and abandoned ten years earlier. After discovering this Nekhlyudov goes on a mission to absolve himself of the guilt of ruining Katusha ( now the prostitute, named Maslova), to assure that she will not suffer anymore He goes on a spiritual journey of reform and good-will, traveling not only the panoramic landscape of Russia, going to the far eastern part of Siberia, but into the homes of the peasants who are filthy, and into the gaol where he sees much suffering and in justice towards the prisoners. In this process of reformation, Nekhlyudov realizes that the cruelty and violence that are sanctioned by the Russian government do not help to reform the damned or punishable, but rather, perpetuate their depravity and their hopelessness, thereby creating more crime and rebellion. Nekhlyudov, disliking what is evil in the men around him, was able to dislike what is evil in himself, and attempted to reform himself. The hatred he felt for the men in his life lessened when he self-reflected and realized that within himself were the same faults and weaknesses. Knowing this and making a determination to reform himself gave him supreme peace, instead of the original insensitive arrogance he felt towards his countrymen, an arrogance which is a common trait of rich aristocracy.
What I believe Tolstoy was attempting to express in writing The Resurrection
is that each one of us, at every moment is being pulled by either our animal nature, that is selfish and cares solely for our own personal universe, or our spiritual self, which regards the happiness of others, and bring us true lasting happiness and peace. Tolstoy uses the character of Nekhlyudov to stand as metaphor for the dying Russian aristocracy that is insensitive and callous to the sufferings of the poor, by dong so he indicts the inhumane penal system, and the brutally cruel institution of Russian serfdom. Tolstoy asks the reader and society as a whole, to reflect and to part from the hypnosis of social conditioning that believes human life is dispensable. I think Tolstoy wrote The Resurrection to awaken in the hearts of his countrymen compassion and respect for their brothers. Ultimately, this novel has stood the test of time, because one- hundred years later, the simplistic candor of his message is clear, that we alone must liberate ourselves from that human impulse to feel that we can use and exploit others out of our own animal greed and ignorance. Tolstoy enlightens the reader into discovering, that we are all connected and that our happiness is inseparable from others and he wants the reader to engrain with their lives the simple fact that no one is immune to the law of causality and the pain we inflict onto others is eventually felt in our hearts.
All blogs are written by Sabrina Rongstad-Bravo More Tales and Adventures in Sabrina's London Diaries
In Tolstoy’s The Resurrection, the protagonist, Prince Nekhlyudov realizes that the young innocent woman in the jury trial, who is now being sentenced to ten years of penal servitude in Siberia, is his once beloved lover Katusha, who he had impregnated and abandoned ten years earlier. After discovering this Nekhlyudov goes on a mission to absolve himself of the guilt of ruining Katusha ( now the prostitute, named Maslova), to assure that she will not suffer anymore He goes on a spiritual journey of reform and good-will, traveling not only the panoramic landscape of Russia, going to the far eastern part of Siberia, but into the homes of the peasants who are filthy, and into the gaol where he sees much suffering and in justice towards the prisoners. In this process of reformation, Nekhlyudov realizes that the cruelty and violence that are sanctioned by the Russian government do not help to reform the damned or punishable, but rather, perpetuate their depravity and their hopelessness, thereby creating more crime and rebellion. Nekhlyudov, disliking what is evil in the men around him, was able to dislike what is evil in himself, and attempted to reform himself. The hatred he felt for the men in his life lessened when he self-reflected and realized that within himself were the same faults and weaknesses. Knowing this and making a determination to reform himself gave him supreme peace, instead of the original insensitive arrogance he felt towards his countrymen, an arrogance which is a common trait of rich aristocracy.
What I believe Tolstoy was attempting to express in writing The Resurrection
is that each one of us, at every moment is being pulled by either our animal nature, that is selfish and cares solely for our own personal universe, or our spiritual self, which regards the happiness of others, and bring us true lasting happiness and peace. Tolstoy uses the character of Nekhlyudov to stand as metaphor for the dying Russian aristocracy that is insensitive and callous to the sufferings of the poor, by dong so he indicts the inhumane penal system, and the brutally cruel institution of Russian serfdom. Tolstoy asks the reader and society as a whole, to reflect and to part from the hypnosis of social conditioning that believes human life is dispensable. I think Tolstoy wrote The Resurrection to awaken in the hearts of his countrymen compassion and respect for their brothers. Ultimately, this novel has stood the test of time, because one- hundred years later, the simplistic candor of his message is clear, that we alone must liberate ourselves from that human impulse to feel that we can use and exploit others out of our own animal greed and ignorance. Tolstoy enlightens the reader into discovering, that we are all connected and that our happiness is inseparable from others and he wants the reader to engrain with their lives the simple fact that no one is immune to the law of causality and the pain we inflict onto others is eventually felt in our hearts.
All blogs are written by Sabrina Rongstad-Bravo More Tales and Adventures in Sabrina's London Diaries
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