MixedUSA TodayThe Fortress of Solitude metaphor — taken from Superman's Antarctic base of operations — is hammered home again and again. Everyone has a fortress … The novel begins in the third person, to the detriment of the story's pace. It's difficult getting through this section, mostly because Lethem spends too much of his time telling instead of showing … Dylan's conversations, when he speaks at all, are short, staccato and to the point, as if using words weakens his wall of solitude. What dialogue there is from other characters flows easily, but there's not enough … The second half has everything the first half lacks. The narrative moves with a rhythm as smooth as the music to which Dylan has attuned his life.
Marjane Satrapi
RaveUSA TodayBut the simple lines and shapes of Satrapi's drawings lend poignancy to the story. The fact that she is able to portray such a vast range of emotions with a few simple strokes of a pen is impressive ... Persepolis covers Satrapi's story from when she was 6, living in Tehran with her intellectual parents, to when she was 14 and had to flee to Vienna to continue her education. At its strongest, it's an inspiring coming-of-age story ... Illuminating the similarities between the Western and Islamic worlds is what Satrapi does best.
