The graphic novel by Mary M. Talbot and Bryan Talbot is another masterpiece from these two authors, who are slowly but safely becoming my favourite authors.
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This novel is an autobiographic take of Mary M. Talbot who described her growing up, in parallel with growing up of James Joyce’s daughter Lucy. In creating a narrative, she used historical records on Lucy and created a compelling story.
Both stories offer narration of parental expectations and how these adversely affect their children. In Mary’s case, it was one of those parents who try to live their unfulfilled ambitions through children. Therefore, in this novel, we also see stories of growing up, difficult conversations and parental abuse.
In Lucy’s case, we follow a story of patriarchy imposed by parents, in particular, Lucy’s mother whereas in Mary’s case we follow a story of parental influence where Mary’s father tried to live his ambition to study in Cambridge through her. In both cases, the growing up was painful but the narrations are capturing and beautiful. The illustration is also fantastic, with different colours being used for the present day as opposed to present, thus providing a film sense, and throughout the novel, the colours used are very vivid and captivating.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in graphic novels as well as newbies.
Thank you for reading.