Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

Is it bad of me to say that I didn't particularly enjoy this book?

As far as the graphic aspects of graphic novels go, I wasn't blown away by the visual aspects of Persepolis.

And as far as novels go, the personal story of Marjane is extremely interesting (though I suspect not too dissimilar from that of a lot of people in a similar position in the 1980s), but I didn't learn much that I didn't know already about the big historical issues that frame the book.

At times the book appears to me to be a bit too raw, but maybe that's because it is ultimaltely written and drawn through the eyes of a young woman still trying to find her way into the world.

Sabrina - Nick Drnaso

A few weeks ago, IKEA in Wembley was giving out one free book from the 2018 longlist for the Booker Prize to its customers. I was happy to force my wife, her brother and his girlfriend to make it all the way there to get four free hardcover books that would have otherwise cost £64 (disclaimer – we were already in Green Park and my wife wanted to go to IKEA anyway, so it wasn’t that crazy…).

Of the four books, Sabrina was the only one that I had heard of before, given the attention that the press gave to the first graphic novel to be longlisted for the prize (attention here being really rather relative, as the mainstream press doesn’t really care that much about the longlist for the Booker, or literature in general).

At the cost of spoiling it for the readers, it was a huge relief to finish the book to realize that the build-up made of conspiracies and fake news did not result in further deaths. While the alienation and the agony of the novel make it a really good book, their continuous presence (for me) prevent it from being a great book – I really could have done with an occasional page of light relief.

Also, the stylized drawings are visually really pleasing, but am I the only one who found himself confused by characters that looked rather similar (though I suppose that was something done intentionally)?