December 4th 2006
Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi
Chicken with Plums
by Marjane Satrapi
I’m a fan of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novels, but they are so dark at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, I like dark, but I need something to balance the darkness and that is lacking especially in her most recent work. I found her autobiographical works, Persepolis and Persepolis 2 to be fascinating but somewhat dense reading. Then Embroideries, based on stories Satrapi has heard from women in her family about various sexual encounters was a wonderful work, both funny and dark at times. Chicken with Plums is all dark and depressing. It is a wonderfully twisted love story, but I found myself wondering what the lesson was. Or maybe I missed the point and there isn’t a lesson, maybe it’s just a story. But I found even the story difficult because the main character (based on the author’s great-uncle) was mostly unlikable, making it was difficult for me to feel any sympathy for him. As always, Satrapi’s black and white artwork is beautiful in its style and simplicity. Here’s hoping her next work is a bit more like Embroideries.
