Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi: I suspect that if I hadn't read the first installment of Marji's story, I would have thought a whole lot less of her. This story isn't nearly as innocent and sweet as the first one. Indeed, she gets into problems that you really don't like seeing teenagers get into. I won't spoil any of that with the sordid details, for that you'll have to read it yourself, but I will say that for a kid all alone and unguided in the world... well, she did about as poorly as any parent would fear. I found her story after she returns to her family in Iran to be far more compelling, as only then she starts to put her experiences into perspective.
After living in Europe, where freedom gave her a little too much leeway, she is back in a totally different world, one where fear dominates. Of all the moments of revelation in the book, there was a single one that jumped out at me. She tells us that when people are worried that the wrong color socks, or a stray hair sticking out from under a veil, can lead to a beating then they aren't thinking about freedom of thought, speech, or what's happening in the prisons.
Fear is the tool of dictators.
When you are afraid, you aren't thinking about the way the government is taking away your right to live. If you are scared to be arrested for carrying a bookmark, then you aren't thinking about how your constitutional rights have been removed. If you are afraid because the government keeps raising the terror alert, then you aren't paying attention to the people being illegally imprisoned for getting out of a cab in the wrong place.
Marji learns that one way to survive is to fit in, a role that she simply doesn't play very well. She learns that even cultural heroes aren't acceptable the government, and in the end discovers that she can no longer survive while playing at being something she isn't. The power of this book is that it shows us that people are the same all over. That Iranians, the people, are no different than any other people. You cannot come out of reading this book hating Iranians. You might hate their government, but the book is about the people. I preferred the first book to this one, but both are worth reading. Visit your library, or pick them up from a local bookstore. 
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