Chicken with plums...happiness in crumbs

Chicken with plums, candies and gums, clapping and drums, laughter and jumps.

This is how the title makes you feel but believe me its far from it. Marjane Satrapi and her beautiful picture books can make even the most grim subjects a bag of laughter. She brings in the amazing human ability to laugh and live life even in the most hopeless situations. This book is the testimony to it - as Marjane narrates 8 days before death of Naseer Ali Khan, his broken tar and heart. He lay there waiting for death to come, giving up music, food and any hope to live, what can make the story any exciting at this point of time. Well the family visits, their stories, their memories and showing the futures unknown to them but past by now. His children play around him unknown to his state, his wife torn b/w love and responsibility cooks his favorite dish - Chicken with Plums, his brother opposite to him in all ways reconciling in the end, his last rendezvous with the love of his life - Irene. Each incident is beautifully treated with fine strokes of warmth and irony, that you feel the inevitable sad ending but accept it as part of life. 

So this book is more like.. Chicken with plums, life has its bumps, smile only trumps, happiness in the crumbs.