“Ethel & Ernest: A True Story” by Raymond Briggs

This biographical graphic novel is definitely unique. At first, I thought I liked it, but as time wore on (I was constantly interrupted while trying to read it), I found I liked it less and less. The author is an artist who chronicles the life of his British parents from their meeting in the 1920s through their deaths in the 1970s. The book is broken up into chapters by decades, but the story itself is rather snapshot-like, with small interchanges, sometimes seemingly inconsequential, between the couple as their relationship grows. One wonders what Raymond Briggs thought of his parents, as their portraits are fairly unapologetic. Perhaps it is a British “thing”, but the two people he reveals in this book are deeply flawed and fairly unlikable. Was I missing the charm of “those crazy things we put up with from our loved ones” or was this Mr. Briggs’ chance to work out a few demons? I’d like to believe the former, but the word “love” didn’t seem to appear anywhere in the text. His character, as a young boy and then growing man, is scolded, molded, but rarely hugged. We see criticism, but not the kind of “guiding lessons” one would wish to have as memories from your parents when they are gone. Maybe that’s the point – that we all crave a parent/child relationship that is, essentially, myth. Hard to say. The book was engaging. The colorful watercolor and colored pencil drawings are drawn with amazing specificity, and the bold text grabs your eye. Some devices, such as using a single bubble to enclose the dialog of two characters, creates a little humor. In terms of presentation, this was a page-turner. It’s just that the book as a whole left me a little cold … and when you are writing the saga of your family, one would hope for even a single drop of warmth.