Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Published 2000 · 160 pages · 40,000 words · about 2 hours at an average pace · Graphic Novel, Memoir & Autobiography, Nonfiction
How hard is Persepolis to read?
Persepolis scores 34 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 30 out of 100
- Accessible vocabulary. Satrapi writes in a conversational register suited to memoir and graphic narrative.
- Sentence structure: 25 out of 100
- Short captions and dialogue balloons. The visual medium compresses language.
- Abstraction: 40 out of 100
- Political and philosophical questions about revolution and identity are explored through a child's perspective.
- Information density: 45 out of 100
- Covers a decade of Iranian history through personal experience. Dense with political context despite the visual format.
- Narrative indirection: 25 out of 100
- Chronological memoir. The graphic format creates directness.
- Symbolic density: 40 out of 100
- The veil, the key (given to martyrs), and the black-and-white art style carry symbolic weight.
- Ironic distance: 40 out of 100
- The adult Satrapi drawing her childhood self creates ironic distance. Humor coexists with horror throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 35 out of 100
- The first volume ends with Marji's exile. Satrapi's story continues in Persepolis 2.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- Chronological graphic memoir. Simple structure enhanced by the visual medium.
How Persepolis is regarded
Persepolis holds a literary regard score of 61 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.