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Chicken with Plums
Availability:
In Stock
Price:
$12.95
$7.42*
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| Part No: | 0375714758 |
| Manufacturer: | Pantheon |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 4.5 / 5.0 |
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- ISBN13: 9780375714757
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
“Chicken with Plums is a feast you’ll devour.”
— Newsweek
Acclaimed graphic artist Marjane Satrapi brings what has become her signature humor and insight, her keen eye and ear, to the heartrending story of a celebrated Iranian musician who gives up his life for music and love. When Nasser Ali Khan, the author’s great-uncle, discovers that his beloved instrument is irreparably damaged, he takes to his bed, renouncing the world and all its pleasures. Over the course of the week that follows, we are treated to vivid scenes of his encounters with family and friends, flashbacks to his childhood, and flash-forwards to his children’s future. And as the pieces of his story fall into place, we begin to understand the breadth of his decision to let go of life. The poignant story of one man, it is also stunningly universal—a luminous tale of life and death, and the courage and passion both require of us.
| This is no Persepolis but still good | 2010-06-11 | 4 / 5 |
| The book is too brief, my guess is that this is just what Satrapi was able to find out from her uncle's story...
If you read if you read "Chicken with Plums" before Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood & Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return you might end up disappointed, those two graphic novels are more much complete works, if you read them first you'll end up wanting more from the author and will see this book with a different eye.
BTW, now I'm off yo get Embroideries which I should have read before this one :) |
| Another success for Satrapi | 2010-05-21 | 4 / 5 |
| Author Marjane Satrapi is known for the best selling Persepolis and its film adaptation. However, her excellence as an author and artist does not end there. Last year she wrote another memoir-esque book titled Chicken and Plums which follows the last week of her uncle's life. The graphic novel tells the story of her uncle Naser Aki Khan whose wife breaks his favorite instrument. After searching for a new instrument of the same quality, he realizes that there is none that will satisfy him. Having some to this realization, he decides that he will die and locks himself in his room for eight days before he finally passes. The graphic novel illustrates these last several days which include flashbacks to his troubled childhood, lost love, and marriage. These flashbacks give a helpful backstory to his current relationships with his wife, brother, sister, and children all of whom come to his bedside and try to persuade him to live. Overall, the novel can be summarized by the statement that one of his friends makes "to live, it's not enough to be alive". Though Nasser Aki Khan has lived a life, his flashbacks and reflections show that he may never have been alive.
Though the story is simplistic and the ending is told within the first few pages, it is truly a musing on life and the importance of living. The drawings are equally simplistic but are beautiful and typical of Satrapi's style. Similar to her other books, with the exception of Persepolis, few events actually occur. Yet, the drama is within the characters and their relationships with each other. Perhaps what is most astonishing, is that all of the characters in her novels are not only factual but they are all within her own family. Though her characters are uniquely her own, one can easily identify with certain people and recognize themselves or loved ones in her characterizations. At only 96 pages this is the shortest of her books, readers should not disregard it. In fact, it is just as powerful and moving as her longer novels and resonates with the reader weeks after one has finished reading. Satrapi is able to give the reader a snapshot of only a few days in a person's life and yet make the reader feel as if he/she has been the witness to his entire life and corresponding relationships. Thus by reflecting on Nasser's life, the reader is also reflecting on his/her own. |
| Deceptively simple | 2010-04-21 | 5 / 5 |
| In this story about Marjane Satrapi's great uncle, we get a glimpse into a seemingly simply story. You get the "ending" about half way into the book (that is, you see Ali's fate fairly early in). But the ending, is as always, just the beginning of yet another story. When the perspective slips into first person, the slow descent starts to become evident as the pages turn, and the art and storyline get more fanciful.
And like any good story teller, Satrapi keeps you guessing about all the different layers of the characters in the book. As someone else mentioned, you sincerely wish that you could have gotten more of a look into the people's lives, and had a heavier tome. You care about the characters in the story; even the side characters.
The whole story took me about an hour to get through, because I wanted to stop and enjoy the pictures, and really let it impact me. It's only about 79 pages long, so it's not that hard to power through it. But please, don't power through it. Take your time, and savour the story, because it's over all too soon.
When you finally do reach the actual ending, the outcome is far more plaintive and sad than what seemed like the ending halfway into the book.
[I'm trying not to spoiler, so please forgive me if I'm being a little vague.]
Pick up the book, read it, enjoy it, and tell the rest of us how you liked it. :) |
| Another marvel from Satrapi's inexhaustible well | 2009-12-19 | 5 / 5 |
| Not since Proust have I been so bowled over by an author's ability to mine his or her own past for rich stories. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis left my jaw hanging--her Embroideries left me uncomfortable in the way good literature generally does--and Chicken with Plums is yet another amazing piece of work coaxed gently from her family's collective memory.
Of all her work, this story is the least directly connected to her. It's the story of her great-uncle' and his eight-day death, a process initiated by his family's rejection of, or inability to understand, his art, symbolized by his wife's destruction of his tar, a traditional Persian stringed instrument similar to a sitar. Satrapi shows an uncanny ability to get inside the head of a man she never met personally. In doing so, she creates a bleak metaphor of all artists, trapped in a world of non-artists who all too often dismiss or denigrate their work. It's a wonderful story, but it's a little chilling for all of us for whom life is about more than fulfilling the basic humdrum requirements of earthly existence. |
| Tragic and Too Brief | 2009-11-22 | 4 / 5 |
| Having completely loved Satrapi's graphic novel memoirs, Persepolis, I was excited to discover Chicken with Plums among the new releases at the Oldham County Public Library the last time I was there. True, the hardback was published nearly three years ago, but since I hadn't read it yet I didn't care. This time, the writer/illustrator tells an embellished account of her mother's uncle, Nasser Ali Satrapi, who died 22 November 1958.
Chicken with Plums offers glimpses into Nasser's life, provided in flashbacks and the imaginings of Nasser and his immediate family. He was a musician, prominently skilled in playing the tar, which was his only means of maintaining peace and sanity in a home with an increasingly nagging wife and tiresome children. When his tar is destroyed during a spat with his wife, Nasser tries in vain to replace it...and failing that, elects to die.
Unlike Persepolis, which covers the bulk of the author's childhood years through her early adulthood, Chicken with Plums really tells the story of her great uncle's final week. The account she offers of his life is confined to just a handful of panels to expound upon a singular moment here or there. We are left with an image of Nasser Ali that is recognizable as a person, and yet our understanding of his life is as incomplete as his storyteller's simplistic artwork. I wished to know more about Nasser Ali and his life by the time I finished the 84th, and final, page, and there simply isn't any more story.
Fans of Persepolis will find many themes present in Nasser Ali's story. Indeed, it is easy to envision a young Marjane admiring her misfit uncle as a rebellious predecessor in the family. Even without the benefit of Satrapi's prior works, readers should have no difficulty identifying with the tale of a man confronted by a life that is no longer rewarding. The humor is sparse, for this is a tragic story, yet I did find myself chuckling a few times and even outright laughed aloud for nearly a minute at one point. We can all only hope that, when the time comes, someone as talented as Marjane Satrapi might care enough to tell our own stories. |
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