This was quite a surprise. I picked it up on a whim, seeing a mention of James Joyce on the back, and read through it in one sitting. It's difficult to describe just what it's about. It's a biography of scholar and author Mary Talbot and illustrated by her husband Byran, who is well known in the graphic novel world. But it's also a parallel biography of James Joyce's daughter Lucia, and the narrative jumps from Mary's life to Lucia's, drawing similarities to the two upbringings throughout. Obviously Mary's life turned out much better than Lucia's, who ended up dying in a mental institution (a fate that this book would attribute to her unsupportive parents). The connection is initiated because Mary's own father is a Joycean scholar, one of the pre-eminent of his day, and in many ways his method of fatherhood mirrors Joyce's own (though Talbot's father's ideas are oddly different from Joyce).

This book actually brought to mind Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, a masterpiece of sorts in its own right, in its depictions of father/daughter relationships. Even the art style is similar to Bechdel's though I would argue its more "artistic" and actually more of a pleasure to look at.

Definitely recommend this. It's a short, neat history lesson and an interesting way to tell about one's life.