- the Iranian revolution,
- the Gulf (Iran-Iraq) War (about which we in the West were so cruelly complacent),
- how fugitives to the West are mostly welcomed by the alternative cultures, not the mainstream ones
- Teenagerhood
- Freedom and its contradictions
- God.
(I also just finishedThe Reluctant Fundamentalist.
This novella also a lot of fun and well worth reading, but compared with Persepolis is a bit pompous and self-important.)
I found it the sort of book you have to put down while you walk around and try to think about it. Things like:
- Why don't we understand Iranians as victims of totalitarianism, quite as much as people in Mao's China or Stalin's Russia?
- How much teenagers need surrogate parents and grandparents;
- How people can end up on the streets; and get off them again.
What a gem of a book.
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