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thisisstephenbetts 's review for:
Dotter of Her Father's Eyes
by Mary M. Talbot
Everso slightly underwhelmed. I liked the style of the book, and Talbot's art is, as ever, frequently beautiful (though I'm less keen on his more cartoony, flat-colour style, than the softer, textured art that thankfully dominates the book). I also enjoyed the little notes from Mary Talbot, where Bryan's art differed from her memories. They made the book feel more of a living document. Unfortunately those tailed off later in the book, presumably because Mary and Bryan improved their communication.
The story interleaves Mary's life and her memories of her father, a James Joyce scholar, and that of Joyce's own daughter Lucia. Both threads were okay, but neither were strong enough as written to carry the book on their own. And neither particularly added anything to the other. So they just ended up propping each other up. Also Lucia's story comes to dominate the book, which is reasonable, but leaves the book feeling a little lopsided. Unfortunately it felt like two disjunct sequences of events, rather than a well-crafted narrative.
Part of the problem is that this feels like an ambitious book, but the execution didn't live up to my expectation. I normally don't mind when a book over-reaches, and can't quite pull things together. Unfortunately, in this case I felt that it under-reached.
The story interleaves Mary's life and her memories of her father, a James Joyce scholar, and that of Joyce's own daughter Lucia. Both threads were okay, but neither were strong enough as written to carry the book on their own. And neither particularly added anything to the other. So they just ended up propping each other up. Also Lucia's story comes to dominate the book, which is reasonable, but leaves the book feeling a little lopsided. Unfortunately it felt like two disjunct sequences of events, rather than a well-crafted narrative.
Part of the problem is that this feels like an ambitious book, but the execution didn't live up to my expectation. I normally don't mind when a book over-reaches, and can't quite pull things together. Unfortunately, in this case I felt that it under-reached.