Broken Frontier

The author of Persepolis returns with a story weaving music and love lost into a beautiful tragedy. Nasser Ali Khan is a renowned Tar player in Iran. When a broken instrument provokes a chance encounter, love lost is recalled and the man quietly gives up on life.

When Satrapi’s debut graphic novel hit the scene it was just short of a phenomenon. Persepolis has been translated into twenty languages and adapted into an Academy Award nominated film. More importantly though, it marked the entrance of a strong and unique voice in the field of graphic narrative.

Chicken With Plums may not be as thick a tome as its predecessor, but it is not any lighter of a story. In some ways, this story of a distant great uncle may be more personal than the author’s own memoir. By letting history become merely a backdrop as opposed to the setting for the story, Nasser Ali feels more like a friend than Satrapi did in her own story.

After his prized instrument is destroyed by his wife and found to be irreplaceable, Nasser spends eight days in bed. He remembers his life and through these recollections a delicate tapestry is woven. The readers learn of a love that was left behind to pursue his music. The tragedy is made more poignant through the author’s keen use of the culture of Iran. When coupled with vignettes that reveal not only Ali’s past, but his family’s future, the story becomes a profound statement on opportunities missed and the decision to relinquish life becomes clear to the audience.

The different stories are expertly tied together, slowly revealing the bigger picture, until all is revealed in the final pages. There is no clever twist here as the story begins much as it ends. This gentle reinforcement makes the work more resonant with the reader. This is a story that will haunt the reader and stick with them for days after finishing; and like all great love stories, the filter of a distant culture does not diminish the universality of its statement.

For fans of the author’s previous work, the art here will delight. Her simple lines and stark blacks make a welcome return. Like all great cartoonists, Satrapi is able to create emotionally complex scenes from deceptively sparse drawings. It is lyrically as brilliant in its graphics as it is in its astonishingly well written words.

To have to follow a debut like Persepolis is a daunting task. To do so with such ease in a beautiful and haunting book like Chicken With Plums is an accomplishment of the highest order. It is as rich and rewarding of an experience as the previous work, but it is also entirely different in its scope and world view. This makes Satrapi stand out from the crowd. Hopefully, we will be blessed with many more works of genius from her in the future.