Assimilation Is Hard, Too; The next phase in the life of a plucky Iranian heroine.("Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return")(Book Review)

Byline: Yasmine Mohseni

In the first installment of her graphic novel "Persepolis," 35-year-old Marjane Satrapi mined her childhood to produce a vivid and intimate glimpse of life in revolutionary and postrevolutionary Iran. The story, told in stark black-and-white images, followed Satrapi's 10-year-old alter ego, Marji, as she scurried around the war-torn streets of Tehran with her veil tied securely in place but rebelling however she could--smoking cigarettes, listening to Iron Maiden and wearing a Michael Jackson pin on her denim jacket. The book won Satrapi much acclaim and an enthusiastic following around the world; it sold 200,000 copies in France, where she now lives, and was translated into 11 languages.

Now "Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return" (192 pages. Pantheon ) picks up where the first volume left off. Marji's Marxist parents, wary of raising their 14-year-old daughter in the repressive republic, decide to send her to Europe. But rather than set her free, her journey becomes the departure point for her toughest trials.

Arriving in Vienna--as Satrapi did as a teenager--Marji tries desperately to adapt to Western life, experimenting with drugs, sex and rave parties. A stranger on the street calls her a "dirty foreigner" and her Austrian landlady kicks her out, accusing her of being a whore and a thief. Like so many immigrants, she tries to fit in yet constantly finds herself defending her homeland. "Telling someone you were Iranian meant you had to justify yourself for two hours [and] ...