Life’s a laugh

http://www.mydigitalfc.com/leisure-writing/life%E2%80%99s-laugh-320A bunch of women, both family and friends, have just finished an elaborate luncheon party and settle down for tea and talks. So begins Embroideries, a delightfully wicked book that Marjane Satrapi has pulled out of her sleeve. And she wisely chooses the perfect scenario to tell her tale: Gossiping women.

From the virtues of opium, the conversation smoothly glides on to love, sex and the vagaries of men. And from there each women, including the writer, her mother, grandmother, her aunt and friends, goes on to narrate each other’s personal story, however embarrassing it is.

The snatches of conversation between these women is at times what you probably might have with one of your caring friends, but sometimes it feels as if you are at your gynaecologist’s, discussing your deepest secrets.

Grandma Satrapi is the wicked one of them all. A true-blue drama queen, she tells the most amazing secrets and makes the wittiest suggestions. (If you have read Persepolis I and II, her no-nonsense attitude is something you are already familiar with). Grandma Satrapi truly believes that “To speak behind others’ backs is the ventilator of the heart”.

As usual, Marjane Satrapi brings to the fore the contradicting nature of the Iranian society. While, on the one hand, women discuss plastic surgery for bodily enhancements, on the other, they still believe in “white” magic to get back their love! Throughout the novel, the writer beautifully describes a woman’s longing for love, her desire for liberation, and her regrets in life… In other words, she presents an insight into a woman’s mind.

Love them or hate them, but men feature prominently in the discussions of this bunch of spirited women. If it takes a “key” to get them back, so be it. If it takes a razor blade to prove virginity, so be it. They tell themselves earnestly: “We good wives pay for our own foolishness. We project everything onto our husbands. Men are aware of it and they exploit it.” But they end up having the last laugh — long and loud, they laugh at men’s stupidity. Says a woman, who went through breast augmentation so that her husband would not stray: “Of course this idiot doesn’t know that every time he kisses my breasts, it’s actually my ass he’s

kissing.”

Humour finds its way in every page and Grandma is best at it. “What’s MTV?” “The one with assholes who sing half naked?” But, although funny, Embroideries in a way proves that nothing has really changed for women. She is still the victim of the society. In one instance, a neighbour recounts her brief marriage to a wealthy emigrant who ran to Switzerland with all her wedding jewellery and then divorced her by mail. And a non-resident Iranian doesn't even care to show up for his wedding in Iran: The bride's parents place a framed photograph on the groom's seat at the wedding party! The bride joins her husband in London, only to discover that her husband is homosexual.

Despite the stark black-and-white drawings, the book keeps you hooked and prompts you to finish it in one sitting.