( 6 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 8 2009
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Posted: Jun 24 2007
If you care at all about graphic novels (or good storytelling!), and have read Spiegelman's Maus I & II, this is the next book to snap up. Briggs, better known for Father Christmas and The Snowman, demonstrates a novelistic range in this short, but expressive book that traces his parents' courtship, marriage, and death. The book is masterfully developed through short scenes, often in the most mundane moments of life imaginable (trading barbs about politics, marveling at modern inventions, worrying about their son). Even in the midst of war, the couple plods on, preparing tea and fixing up the place, expressing love in these minute domestical details. You really come to know and care about this couple, and the son as well, as he gradually takes his place in the story. The artwork is immaculate and deserves to be "read" on its own. This is a literal world to inhabit, with every detail remembered and re-created. While many graphic novels have crude, or more expressionistic drawings, Briggs creates a sumptuous tableau of the everyday life as filtered through his unique sensibility. The book ends far too quickly, but it never gets old...I will enjoy reading this again and again over the years.
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Posted: Nov 21 2004
I've never written a review on amazon before but after buying this book recently I felt compelled to say just how wonderful this book really is. Funny, witty and very, very moving, Raymond Briggs manages to capture two characters and their relationship over forty years in a cartoon strip. By the end of the book you feel as if you've known this couple forty years! I highly recommend this book to all ages. It's just wonderful.
