Dotter of Her Father's Eyes [Hardcover]

"Dotter of Her Father's Eyes" is about the father/daughter relationships of two women - Mary Talbot, wife of Bryan Talbot (writer/artist extraordinaire of such books as Luther Arkwright, One Bad Rat, Nemesis the Warlock, Sandman, and the Grandville series), and Lucia Joyce, daughter of legendary novelist James Joyce (author of Ulysses, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners).

The book alternates between the two women at similar points in their lives from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and shows parallels between them and their fathers. Mary's father was an eminent James Joyce scholar whose work "The Books at the Wake" remains the best book written analysing Joyce's incredibly difficult novel "Finnegan's Wake", and in turn an equally difficult man to get along with. Mary details her clashes with her dad who was mentally abusive to her while growing up, often belittling her achievements and dreams.

Lucia's father wasn't abusive - Joyce was too wrapped up in his own writings to be that way - and he was generally quite involved in raising his daughter, but when she became a young woman wanting to become a professional dancer and start an independent career, Joyce and his shrill wife forbade it to the point where she became so frustrated she threw a chair at her mother. Incredibly this incident led to her becoming institutionalised, a forced way of life that she would never escape until her death.

Mary Talbot's writing is superb and she brings to life her story with warmth and candour, perfectly matching her husband's artwork in tone and mood. The book is enthralling to read and, for Mary, ultimately a happy ending. For Lucia, it's hard to imagine a thwarted dance career and an overbearing mother could lead to a decades long imprisonment, but perhaps it really was all that - maybe there is more to her story than presented here.

I loved Bryan Talbot's work in this book. It's not nearly as polished or dramatic as his work in books like Grandville, and the book is coloured infrequently, mostly in sepia tones throughout, but it's still wonderful to see. His depiction of Lucia's descent into madness is as high a quality fans have come to expect from this artist, while the drawing of he and Mary's wedding day is very beautiful in its simplicity and expression of pure happiness.

"Dotter of her Father's Eyes" is a fascinating comic book of human relationships and the importance of an unshackled human spirit, but moreover it's a great read. Who knew that Bryan Talbot's wife was also a talented writer? Highly recommended.

Mary Talbot's father was a prominent James Joyce scholar who was beloved by his students for his warmth and enthusiasm. At home, however, his main modes were terrible anger and sarcasm. In this graphic memoir written by Mary Talbot and illustrated by her husband Bryan, Mary's life is interspersed with that of Lucia Joyce a talented dancer and illustrator (although this latter activity is not mentioned) who is shown as having her ambitions thwarted by her own controlling family.

"Dotter of her Father's Eyes" is a compelling and moving work, which also displays great warmth and humour. Bryan Talbot's illustrations are beautiful: shades of grey and black for Lucia's story and sepia enhanced with colour for Mary's. The husband and wife pairing works very well and some of my favourite parts of the memoir involved Mary's marginal comments on her husband's illustrations.

"Dotter of her Father's Eyes" came to my attention after it was shortlisted (and later won) the Costa biography award. It is a worthy winner.

What is it about graphic narratives and family memoirs?!! Dotter of Her Father's Eyes is a worthy addition to such great graphic matremoirs and patremoirs as Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, Ross Mackintosh's Seeds, Seth's Bannock, Beans and Black Tea, David Small's Stitches, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and Carol Tyler's You'll Never Know. As Alison Bechdel does in her two books, Mary Talbot uses literature and a literary life as a template against which to measure part of her own. Where Bechdel used writers such as Fitzgerald, James, Joyce, Wilde and Woolf, Talbot limits herself to Joyce and his relationship with his daughter, Lucia. The title of her book is a fitting, playful reference to both Joyce and her own father. And what better illustrator for a Joyce themed narrative than Mary's husband, Bryan Talbot, creator of the amazing Alice in Sunderland. After all, it's a small step from Lewis Carroll to James Joyce. Once again, Bryan's inventive, gritty artwork works wonders in animating social history. Husband and wife can be very proud of this book.