Comments for Chicken with Plums

Chicken with Plums: 02/17/15

Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel style account of her great-uncle's suicide. When Nasser Ali Khan's beloved tar is broken in a heated argument, he decides life is no longer worth living. He retires to his bedroom and stays in bed for seven days, not eating until he eventually dies of a broken heart.

Told with her usual start black and white artwork and her poetic turn of phrase, Chicken with Plums is the story of a life unwinding. It's mostly a look back throughout his life at the good and the bad and how music was his escape from monotony and possibly depression.

Through no careful planning on my part, beyond going to the library and picking up a bunch of graphic novels I wanted to read, I read Chicken with Plums and Emily and the Strangers Volume 1 back to back. Both are about the importance of music, though the first is about the tragedy of lost music, whereas the second is about a haunted guitar that will bring the best music to the right person. Although one is very serious and the other isn't, I do recommend reading them together, especially if you're musically inclined.

Four stars

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