| View Larger Image | Chicken with Plums | Paperbackby Marjane Satrapi (Author)
| List Price: | $12.95 | | Price: | $10.36 | | You Save: | $2.59 (20%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Pantheon | | Edition: | Reprintth Edition | | Page Count: | 96 Pages | | Publication Date: | April 14, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 40,464th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780375714757
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
“Chicken with Plums is a feast you’ll devour.”—NewsweekAcclaimed 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. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 23 reviews)
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Tragic and Too Brief by Min L Shaw (KY)  4 Stars
November 22, 2009
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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Heartfelt and Unique by GraphicNovelReporter.com (New York, NY)  5 Stars
November 17, 2009
For people with musical passions, being a musician is not a nine-to-five job but a soulful calling. In Marjane Satrapi's Chicken with Plums, we are introduced to musician Nasser Ali, an emotive man living in 1950s Iran who is in search of a new tar (Persian lute). His old tar has been broken. Though Nasser Ali searches desperately for a replacement lute, it is no use; he tries out so many different tars and none of them work for him. He decides to die.
This graphic novel sets itself up with a vague opening and what looks like an absurd man. Who would die over a tar? Nasser Ali gets into bed and dies successfully in about a week, going without food or happiness. And as each of his last days go by, the story takes us through time. Sometimes it shows us what will happen in the future, but it's the revealing of the past that really gets to the meat of things. It's those flashbacks that show what led up to all this. Would a man really die over a tar? No. There's something deeper here, and it only makes sense by reading through the book. By the end, it all comes together and Nasser Ali gives up the ghost.
Chicken with Plums is a subtle but profound read. Some might describe its artwork as simple, as it isn't overly detailed, yet it always gets the point across. And what might start out looking convoluted swiftly becomes a tight yarn as more of Nasser Ali's life gets explained. Its plot is difficult to explain without giving anything away, but the haunting lightness of the story is what gives it its power. In the midst of tragedy, it even has its moments of humor, keeping it away from being an entirely sad read.
This sort of deftness can be expected from Satrapi, who should be well known to most readrs from her breakthrough nonfiction works Persepolis and Persepolis 2. A staple of The New Yorker and New York Times, Satrapi is one of the most exciting and visible young graphjic artists in the field today, and certainly one of its most respected and admired. Satrapi raises the bar of this field, and shows there are many forms and genres for graphic novels.
The sense of mysticism in Chicken with Plums also gives it a unique feeling and doesn't let the outcome feel completely hopeless, only melancholy. In a mere 84 pages, Satrapi gives something heartfelt and unique that can keep a reader thinking about it long after turning its last page.
-- Danica Davidson
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Delectable by J. Sherman (New York, USA) 4 Stars
July 08, 2009
Graphic artist Marjane Satrapi ("Persepolis") seems to have done it again with another comic that centers on her troubled family history. "Chicken with Plums" follows Satrapi's great-uncle Hasser Ali Khan, a gifted but misanthropic musician, who decides to literally lie down and die after his beloved instrument is broken. Exploring Nasser Ali's past, his present and his children's respective futures, the reader better understands the reasons behind Nasser Ali's tragic decision, eventually. Satrapi still writes and illustrates her stories like only she can, managing to squeeze in some of the politics and mysticism of Iran with interfamily drama without disrupting the delicate balance, though it's a trait that's more refined in "Persepolis." A brief but gripping tale of life, death, and the passion and courage one must have for both.
This comic is unrated: Brief Nudity, Adult Language, Adult Situations.
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Tasty followup to Persepolis by Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States) 5 Stars
November 24, 2008
I get nervous when reading new materials from a favorite author, in this case, the post-Persepolis Marjane Satrapi. But "Chicken with Plums" preserves the style and outlook of Satrapi's earlier work without being derivative.
In this book, we meet Nasser Ali, a sensitive yet narcissistic Iranian musician trying to locate a new instrument to replace his broken "tar". Along the way, we learn of his tempestuous family life, his true love, his reluctant courtship and his (mostly) faithless children. It is the misfortune of Ali's family and friends that he leaves a string of broken lives in his wake. Satrapi does a wonderful job of narrating the last days of this selfish and myopic anti-hero, using her trademark black-and-white ink drawings, her fertile wit and marvelous ability to tell complex stories with simplicity, dark humor and immediacy.
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More of the same from Satrapi. by Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)  3 Stars
May 30, 2008
Marjane Satrapi, Chicken with Plums (Pantheon, 2006)
Satrapi's fourth book gives us biography instead of memoir this time-- the story of her great-uncle Nasser Ali Khan, a musician who decides to die after his wife breaks his favorite instrument. We are taken through the final eight days of Khan's life, as friends, relatives, and his own consciousness try to change his mind.
I admit that my somewhat cool reaction to the book is almost certainly a product of the complete overload of memoirs and memoir-like biographies with which the market is currently glutted; I'm relatively sure this will be my last one for a long, long while, save one series-memoir I'm in the middle of. I say this because it's certainly not a bad book; Marjane Satrapi is a witty writer, and no less here than in her other books; Chicken with Plums is as enjoyable as anything else she's done. I just couldn't get my head round it as much as it deserved. ***
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