Bibliofreakblog

Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi

If I have anything to complain about this book, it’s that it’s too short.  We’re transported into the world of  Marjane Satrapi’s family for an afternoon, but left wanting more.

Short though it is, it does manage to pack several stories in, from disparate female voices in Satrapi’s family.  Each woman takes a turn, usually telling her own story, but sometimes gossiping about others, centering around–what else do women talk about?–love, sex, and marriage.

The stories range from funny to tragic.  Each bares it’s own grain of wisdom, too, such as “men’s pride is situated in their scrotums.  When one finds oneself with a bloody testicle, it is preferable to keep one’s mouth shut.”  Upon reading this, I am, once again, grateful that I live in a society that does not put a high value on virginity, as I am one of those rare people who didn’t bleed.  It hurt, but no blood.  

Not all men are great lovers.  One woman opines, “It’s true that I had four kids.  Four!!  But I still have never seen the male organ.  He came into the bedroom, he turned off the light…And then, Bam!  Bam!  Bam!  And voilà, I was pregnant!  What’s more, I was granted four girls.  So I’ve never seen penises.”  She doesn’t mention if she’s ever had an orgasm.  Those who have seen penises, however, say that “generally speaking, a dick isn’t really photogenic.”

They disagree on whether or not it is good to be a mistress.  One woman says, “Herbert was married.  He didn’t want to leave his wife under any circumstances.  He tried everything to convince me to stay in Berlin to become his official mistress.  But that role didn’t suit me.  If he really loved me, he would have married me!  Now do you understand why I left?”  But another woman considers the role of a mistress differently, saying, “To  be the mistress is to have the better role…Do you realize?  His dirty shirts, his disgusting underwear, his daily ironing, his bad breath, his hemorrhoid attacks, his flus, not to mention his bad moods…and his tantrums…well, all that is for his wife.”  Funny enough, I’ve told my husband that he can have a girlfriend as long as she does all of the cleaning and laundry.

These women are of all ages and experiences, and so they speak of men of all ages and experiences.  One woman says that “men, like women, have their menopause at 50.  Except with them, it’s invisible.  It’s the reason they want to be with younger women: to feel young, too.  To prove to themselves and the whole world what they are capable of.”

And where does the title come from?  That’s just one of the things you’ll have to find out for yourself when you read it.
Buy Embroideries on Amazon

If you like this book/author, you might like:

(my reviews in blue)

Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni
Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni
Girls of Riyadh by Ajaa Alsanea 
My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices edited by Lila Azam Zanganeh
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Bastard of Istanbul Elif Shafak
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
Veils: Short Stories by Nahid Rachlin 
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The Lace Makers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Vagina Monologues by Eva Ensler

Other works by Marjani Satrapi:

Persepolis (1 & 2)
Chicken with Plums
Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon