Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

'Persepolis' was, if I remember correctly, a recommendation on goodreads. I don't quite remember what about the book had caught my fancy. Perhaps it was the cover image, or maybe the plot seemed interesting. Anyhow, the book was there when I was looking for something fresh to read.

Slowly, yet steadily, I have come to appreciate the graphic medium of story telling. It is perhaps less intense in it's plots than it's purely literary cousin but it too has it's own charms. It tends to bring together multiple forms of arts together and the beauty lies in how seamlessly they integrate rather the intensity of one. 'Persepolis' is Satrapi's autobiography between the ages of ten and twenty four (1980 - 1994). Unfortunately, 'Persepolis' is also a one woman show with Marjane Satrapi playing the author, the subject and the illustrator, the three main components of a graphic novel (colours are important to but 'Persepolis' does away with it). Satrapi talks of a childhood in the war infested Iran, a child's naive reaction to political upheaval, her brief separation from her family and life of a third world person in Europe. Thence she talks about her return to Iran and life in times of "peace". There are glimpses of Iranian life, of the horror of war and sorrow of life without family but all is in context of our protagonist. Satrapi has made no special effort to portray a life or section of the society that she did not come directly in contact with. Every third person who could have had a story of his own is touched only briefly. Her only forte is her ability to add humour to almost every situation.

'Persepolis' starts in 1980, at the end of the Iranian revolution and the introduction of the veil in the country. Satrapi recounts the revolution and her understanding of it. Her family was quite progressive and educated her about the history of the revolution. And by the end of the Shah's regime, the government landed in the hands of religious fanatics. Iraq invaded soon after and Iran suffered a catastrophic hit to it's population. Dissenters of the religious government were prosecuted and taken prisoners within the country. Young boys were promised heaven and sent to the battlefields to be blown up. Women lost their rights. Marjane's family sent her to Austria to continue her study away from the oppressive air of Iran. She suffered as a third-worlder amidst her European friends. But she managed to get good grades. Teenage heartache and cannabis led to her eventual wrecking. She eventually returned home to Iran admitting herself as a failure. After a period of depression she got hold of her life again and eventually left Iran promising her mother that she would not return this time.

I really liked the first part of 'Persepolis', where Satrapi talks more about the Iranian revolution and the population's oppression under the new regime. In the second book she gets more self centered. The life of a third world child in Europe and her pains might interest readers in the "first world" but it was a mighty drag to me. Anyhow, I am glad that I read this book, if even for just the first part. As for the author, I did not find any special attraction to her style.

Yuganta - Irawati Karve

A friend posted on facebook that she was giving off her books. Of the list only this one caught my fancy enough to make me look it up. 'Yuganta' was a treatise on Mahabharata, an epic that had captured my imagination to the hilt in my childhood. So I rode half way across the city to her "small" going away party, realised that it was a too big a gathering of unknowns for me to feel in place, wished her luck and got the book with a warning that I was not to expect much of it. Since then it was stowed away in my shelf and came up at last when I was running out of options.

I had picked up the book idly to flip through the introductory pages of the book. It was interesting enough to make me keep it on the desk as the primary read. Karve had compiled together a bunch of essays on Mahabharata in this book, so the structure of short independent pieces was appealing to my current taste in books. As I read on, I gradually came to like the way the author had approached the entire subject. Karve warns the reader in the very beginning that what follows is her interpretation of the Mahabharata and its characters; an interpretation that she is wholly entitled to and which she does not presume the reader to agree with. Karve then picks up a few of the main characters of the story and scans them in an analytical light, trying to identify their wisdom and follies. In her belief that the Mahabharata (or the original form of it : Jaya) is a recording of actual history, she tries to pry out the most realistic meaning and interpretation of events.

The book starts with a short piece on Gandhari, one of the lost characters of the epic poem. Karve tries to put life into the character and tries to tell her story; her pains and sufferings. Then she goes on to pick out other characters from the story, Kunti, Bhishma, Karna, Draupadi, etc. and tries to tell the story from their point of view. She tries to draw connections and relations between the characters that are rather lost in the grandeur of the current Mahabharata. She also treats various events and themes from the epic in a similar manner. The book ends with a tone of regret of how the 'bhakti' movement had led to the loss of the objectivity and self confidence that was shown in our great civilization at the time of Mahabharata war; the end of which marked the end of an age.

I have mixed feelings about Karve's writing. While I was wholly in awe of her attitude and the way she had treated the epic, I found the writing style too heavily lined with feminist themes. The entire book also had a didactic undertone that puts one off. And then there was the raving about "our grand ancestors" towards the end. I liked the content, I did not like the presentation. But the one thing that Karve left me with was 'Jaya'. I think Devdutt Pattanaik has a book by that name. It definitely goes on my list.

Batman : The Long Halloween - Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

It had been a while since I had read a graphic novel. I was more or less craving for a light and easy read; something that would not be too much of a burden to finish along with my recent hectic professional schedule. I was looking at Moore's 'Promethea' series but then I have something against series or probably it was cost that worked in favour of Loeb's 'The Long Halloween'. This one had been on my list of Batman essentials since I had read Nolan's review of it. So, swearing to myself that it will be the last of my Batman graphic novels (at least for now), I ordered the book.

There is a conversation with Nolan and Goyer right in the introductory pages of the book. They talk about how 'The Long Halloween' had been a major influence in the scripting of 'The Dark Knight Trilogy'. One thing that they mention in particular is how in this book Loeb brings to life the several characters around Batman who inhabit and shape Gotham but are remarkably characterless in most other works. In 'The Long Halloween' Batman is more human, more attached and more helpless in the face of the numerous adversaries he has to face. He needs his friends in the department, he needs an ally in the Catwoman. He seeks help from the lunatics in the Arkham Asylum. He is a lost man in an abyssal world trying to hold on the the bleak light of hope in any form, man or phantasm.

'The Long Halloween' is the story of Batman, Gordon and Dent trying to bring down Carmine "The Roman" Falcone and his empire of crime. They decide that they will do so without breaking the laws that separate him from them. But starting that Halloween night, a serial killer starts murdering the ballasts of Falcone's system. He ruins Falcone's business, kills his son, kills his muscle. All on public holidays, hence gaining the name "Holiday" killer. Roman and Batman both look to Arkham to gain clues to this killer's identity. But the Halloween drags on, long and cold, for almost a year.

I liked the book. So much so that I finished it the same night that I started it. The way Loeb had brought out the human in Batman and Sale's dark artwork are astounding to say the least. All the auxiliary characters are made more complete and real, specially Selina Kyle, the Catwoman. It is to this touch of realism (I know it is a superhero story) that I credit this novel's wonderful enchantment. But for now, I have had my fill of Batman and Gotham.