Embroideries [Hardcover]

Marjane Satrapi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2005

From the best-selling author of Persepolis comes this gloriously entertaining and enlightening look into the sex lives of Iranian women. Embroideries gathers together Marjane’s tough-talking grandmother, stoic mother, glamorous and eccentric aunt and their friends and neighbors for an afternoon of tea drinking and talking. Naturally, the subject turns to love, sex and the vagaries of men.

As the afternoon progresses, these vibrant women share their secrets, their regrets and their often outrageous stories about, among other things, how to fake one’s virginity, how to escape an arranged marriage, how to enjoy the miracles of plastic surgery and how to delight in being a mistress. By turns revealing and hilarious, these are stories about the lengths to which some women will go to find a man, keep a man or, most importantly, keep up appearances.

Full of surprises, this introduction to the private lives of some fascinating women, whose life stories and lovers and will strike us as at once deeply familiar and profoundly different from our own, is sure to bring smiles of recognition to the faces of women everywhere–and to teach us all a thing or two.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This slight follow-up to Satrapi's acclaimed Persepolis books explores the lives of Iranian women young and old. The book begins with Satrapi arriving for afternoon tea at her grandmother's house. There, her mother, aunt and their group of friends tell stories about their lives as women, and, more specifically, the men they've lived with and through. One woman tells a story about advising a friend on how to fake her virginity, a scheme that goes comically wrong. Another tells of escaping her life as a teenage bride of an army general. Satrapi's mother tells an anecdote of the author as a child; still others spin yarns of their sometimes glamorous, sometimes difficult, lives in Iran. The tales themselves are entertaining, though the folksiness and common themes of regret and elation feel familiar. Satrapi's artwork does nothing to elevate her source material; her straightforward b&w drawings simply illustrate the stories, rather than elucidating or adding meaning to them. Characters are hard to distinguish from each other, and Satrapi's depictions of gestures and expressions are severely limited, hampering any attempt at emotional resonance. This work, while charming at times, feels like an afterthought compared to Satrapi's more distinguished work on Persepolis and its sequel. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Satrapi follows her acclaimed youth memoirs Persepolis (2003) and Persepolis 2 [BKL Ag 04] with some tales her grandmother, mother, aunts, and their bosom friends told her about sex and men--stories that are frank, funny, occasionally sad, and utterly credible. Thrice-married Grandma recalls the friend who took counsel on how to convince her husband she was still a virgin--with hilarious, wince-inducing results. Another woman confides that, despite her children (all daughters), "I've never seen or touched anything"--male, that is. Arranged marriages, a potion to bind a lover, cosmetic surgery, "embroidery"--by which is meant another means of "restoring" virginity--and more are revealed, assessed, and resolved, all within the context of a women-only tea-bibbing circle in which young Marji is cook (not brewer, she explains), decanter, and enthralled listener. In line with the book's aura of abandoned constraints, Satrapi dispenses with panel frames; she also elides most background detail; and those choices make the book less graphic-novelish than cartoonish a la, say, Jules Feiffer. The sparkling verbal content, however, triumphs. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (April 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375423052
• ISBN-13: 978-0375423055
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.9 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran. She grew up in Tehran, where she studied at the French school, before leaving for Vienna and Strasbourg to study decorative arts. She currently lives in Paris, where she is at work on the sequel to Persepolis. She is also the author of several children's books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Women, April 24, 2005

By 

Genevieve S. Gibson (Seattle, Wa United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Embroideries (Hardcover)

Embroideries is a short book by the same author who wrote the two part graphic novel memoir "Persepolis" about her childhood in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. I enjoyed those books because it showed real life in Iran and it wasn't just a scary state of being that is often presented to the American public. (she showed people doing their best to maintain their dignity despite extreme circumstances) I think her latest book is an extension of that. This time the author Marjane Satrapi shares the stories the women in her family tell about love, life, sex, marriage and their place in it all. Many of the stories are absolutely hilarious and others are just plain heart-breaking. The heart-breaking ones make me think of Flannery O'Connor short stories for their slightly macabre tone and people going on with living despite such experiences. It was captivating because if it wasn't for the setting I think some experiences could be universal or common for many women in the world. Again the author shows Western readers that life in Iran isn't all veils and misery as we are often told. Women often get a raw lot there but there is also gentle beauty, broad humour and a close sense of family; where these women share their stories of wild living, love and even the joys of being a mistress. The illustrations are very simple black and white drawings but they reveal much more in subtle moments.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A fly on the wall listening to old crones, October 9, 2005

By 

therosen "therosen" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Embroideries (Hardcover)

Marjane Satrapi, who earned her fame writing the graphic novels Persepolis and Persepolis 2, continues in the genre, retelling the stories overheard from the women in her family. Reading it is like being transported to her parlor, as they gossip about the good and bad (mostly bad) of the men in their lives.

The book's primary strength is Satrapi's relentless honesty in reporting what she sees. Weakness of characters as well as strength is portrayed. What is essentially a book of feminine sisterhood across generations also highlights personal fraility.

That said, the brevity and shallowness of topic make this significantly less moving and worthy than either Persepolis novel.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inside look at the love lives of Iranian woman, August 1, 2005

By 

tpw79 "tpw79" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embroideries (Hardcover)

In Marjane Satrapi's latest book, Embroideries, she takes on the sex lives of Iranian women. Like in her past books the author brings to life colorful, lively women who discuss their most inner secrets about men, love, and "getting your virginity back," as where the title of the book comes from. The stories range from a woman getting plastic surgery to keep her man interest to another woman who finds out her husband is gay only after her arranged marriage to him. The stories are funny, sad, enlightening and all around fascinating. Although many of the experiences are unique to a Muslim woman's perspective, any woman, no matter what religion, will enjoy and related to some of the stories. This book proves that no matter what part of the world a woman is from, women have to deal with the same issues of love, sex and man troubles.