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fionnious's review
4.0
Brilliant collaborative semi-personal, semi-biographical of Mary Talbot and Lucia Joyce - the daughter of James Joyce - respectively. Not my usual style of graphic novel but I absolutely loved it. Both Mary's enthralling and moving story as well as Bryan Talbot's (who is also incidentally Mary's husband) amazing and interesting illustration worked fantastically to tell these awesome stories.
fnnbnjmnks's review
4.0
Brilliant collaborative semi-personal, semi-biographical of Mary Talbot and Lucia Joyce - the daughter of James Joyce - respectively. Not my usual style of graphic novel but I absolutely loved it. Both Mary's enthralling and moving story as well as Bryan Talbot's (who is also incidentally Mary's husband) amazing and interesting illustration worked fantastically to tell these awesome stories.
dannymason_1's review
3.0
Good stuff, I loved the art style and thought it made great use of the format and the way the two stories were interwoven without beating you over the head with the similarities was very effective. I only haven't given it a higher rating because it was over so quickly that I didn't get much of a chance to settle into the story, but it could easily go up on a reread.
foggy_rosamund's review
2.0
This combines two narratives: the story of Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce, and Talbot's memoir, describing her childhood as the daughter of an important Joyce scholar. Both daughters struggle with their father's demands. Lucia Joyce wants to be a dancer, and her ambitions are quashed by her family, despite her obvious talent, and she is ultimately committed to an insane asylum. The author experiences no such cruelty, but she struggles with an angry and repressive father, whose presence blights her childhood. This is a short graphic novel, and neither of these narratives is given space to become fully realised: I wasn't sure exactly what Talbot was trying to say about her father, and the story felt unresolved; meanwhile, the story of Lucia Joyce is ripe for exploration, and yet is given little space. Ultimately, though the ideas were interesting, this graphic novel is disappointing and unsuccessful.
beniamino's review against another edition
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.5
what the hell. why did i never know lucia joyce (james' kid) was committed to a sanatorium for the rest of her life for being "angry" about no one supporting her aspirations of being a dancer. she was a natural at ballet. also i never knew samuel beckett played her–made her think she was worth something, and then tossed her aside (worst thing is, she was expected [forced] to attend her father's celebratory dinners, at which beckett was always an invitee).
just goes to show people want a "nice" girl. they don't like a girl with a temper. after she finally lashed out at her mom for calling her a "trollop" (on every other day mind you), doing a whole citizen kane moment by throwing a chair at a table, her family committed her–she alternated between clinic and house arrest/restraint and sedation. then what do you know, she became suicidal and addicted to veronal. then when the nazis marched into paris she was isolated by the coast with other patients. and then she lived in an institution the rest of her life.
what the hell.
just goes to show people want a "nice" girl. they don't like a girl with a temper. after she finally lashed out at her mom for calling her a "trollop" (on every other day mind you), doing a whole citizen kane moment by throwing a chair at a table, her family committed her–she alternated between clinic and house arrest/restraint and sedation. then what do you know, she became suicidal and addicted to veronal. then when the nazis marched into paris she was isolated by the coast with other patients. and then she lived in an institution the rest of her life.
what the hell.
kjboldon's review
3.0
Graphic memoir. Dual coming of age of James Joyce's daughter Lucia, and a Joycean scholar's daughter, Mary, the author and wife of the illustrator/artist. I found it interesting, but a little thin, with tenuous connections between the lives.
sharnibee's review
4.0
This is a graphic novel memoir/biography of Mary Talbot (internationally acclaimed scholar and daughter of a Joycean scholar) and Lucia James (dancer and daughter of James Joyce). It's a fast read made all the more enjoyable by Bryan Talbot's illustrations- although, I'd love to time travel back in time to slap Lucia's parents - so unsupportive! Gah!