Chicken with Plums: Soul-touching graphic novel by Iranian novelist Marjane Satrapi

Even if you’re not an ardent fan of graphic novels, you’re going to love this one by Iranian-origin graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi. Curiously titled Chicken with Plums, it’s a story that dexterously blends grief with humour and surreal spiritual experiences with a tongue in cheek take on everything in life.

It’s the story of musician Nasser Ali whose will to live is apparently destroyed by one major episode —  his wife breaking his beloved ‘Tar’, the source of his music and his joy, after an argument. For eight days, he awaits death in the confines of his room, lying on his bed. The novel traces the entire course of those days, flitting in and out of the mind of Nasser Ali, moving noiselessly from past to present and back again, exploring every relationship in his life that mattered. There is an entire life that unfolds in the images of those eight days.

In the process, Satrapi also touches, in an offhand manner, small observations on pre-revolution Iran — the politics and the society — and a reference to the ‘American dream’ as well as the hollow side of it. Remarkably, it is all done in the manner of the perfect storyteller — blending in, with a touch of humour, with no traces of preaching, pitying or judging. You can make of it whatever you like; her job is just to tell you the story.

The ‘graphic’ part of the novel is the heart of it. It’s not just a pictorial depiction of a story. The images add vital information, and more importantly, vital emotions to the story. You need to go through every character’s expressions to be able to truly appreciate the effect. The tale meanders through every contrasting image possible. The most surprising being, perhaps, the surprise appearance of Azrael, the Quranic angel of death. If ever the generally perceived-with-terror angel of death could be presented in an overwhelmingly touching manner, it is in this book.

But the best, as they say, is reserved for the last. Through all the little things that keep hitting you at small intervals, what blows you away with the force of its impact is the end. There’s perhaps no better storyteller than the one who can catch you unawares. From the first image to the last, it’s an intricately woven, entirely unbroken web that completes a full circle as it ends. It brings you right back to the beginning, and makes you see the entire tale afresh. The penultimate image — a slightly altered, repeat rendering of the funeral — is the masterstroke of the perfectionist. It’s a brilliant illustration of the phrase ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’: you could gaze at it forever.

As for the title, you could have your own interpretations for it. To me, it just stands for Nasser Ali’s longing for life. The one longing of his heart… that no longer remains the same.

This is one book you won’t be able to put down until you reach the end. Very few stories overpower your emotions so completely.