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The Mousehouse Years
The Mousehouse Years is a graphic memoir set primarily in the slums of Toronto in the early sixties. It tells the turbulent story of a dysfunctional romance, a single mother raising six children and a childhood filled with adversity and adventure.
This fascinating tale takes us inside a "large but broken family whose children years later, gather around the cocooned figure of their mother as she lays swaddled in sheets on her deathbed. The drawings are uniquely unpretentious and intuitive, like the drawings of a child. This instinctive pictorial dimension is the eye of the story, giving testament to the past, a past inspired in turns by disappointments or rejoicings, in a world filled with its own share of the ominous and hilarious which filled the author at times with dread, at times with wonderment and incredulity, leaving their ghosts of memory as vivid imprints on her and now on us, haunting and unforgettable.
...This maverick graphic memoir, told with a distinctive, original voice and seen through an unblinking, unrelenting eye, reweaves the past clearly without adulation or censure, judgement or despair, the sun always there at the author's back.
This fascinating tale takes us inside a "large but broken family whose children years later, gather around the cocooned figure of their mother as she lays swaddled in sheets on her deathbed. The drawings are uniquely unpretentious and intuitive, like the drawings of a child. This instinctive pictorial dimension is the eye of the story, giving testament to the past, a past inspired in turns by disappointments or rejoicings, in a world filled with its own share of the ominous and hilarious which filled the author at times with dread, at times with wonderment and incredulity, leaving their ghosts of memory as vivid imprints on her and now on us, haunting and unforgettable.
...This maverick graphic memoir, told with a distinctive, original voice and seen through an unblinking, unrelenting eye, reweaves the past clearly without adulation or censure, judgement or despair, the sun always there at the author's back.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 12, 2015
I am generally not a fan of graphic novels. However, I loved The Mousehouse Years. It is the story of growing up in a dysfunctional family. It discusses some very serious, disturbing topics. By being a graphic novel, the book gives a little much needed distance to the issues, while also being more explicit and graphic with the pictures.
this novel is intelligently and sensitively written, with a matter of fact tone. It portrays the characters with flaws, but with positive traits as well. It shows the characters really trying to do their best, or doing simply all that they're capable of.
I highly recommend this novel. I plan to reread this, as I sense that there's a lot more in the book than I got on the first read.
this novel is intelligently and sensitively written, with a matter of fact tone. It portrays the characters with flaws, but with positive traits as well. It shows the characters really trying to do their best, or doing simply all that they're capable of.
I highly recommend this novel. I plan to reread this, as I sense that there's a lot more in the book than I got on the first read.
April 15, 2015
When I first picked it up and flipped through the pages, the combination of seemingly MSPaint drawings and photos seemed strange. When I started reading The Mousehouse Years, I rather fell in love. It is the story of a family from the 1940s-almost present time. How the writer's mother raised 6 children in Toronto. I found myself going to Google Maps to look up some of the addresses in streetview to see if the various homes she mentioned were still there. I daydreamed about what it must have been like living at Bathurst and Queen in the 60s! I was slackjawed at some of the antics of her father. Velvet Haney bares her family's secrets in a very quirky and frank way.
October 24, 2014
Debut author Velvet Haney uses a graphic novel format to tell her childhood experience of growing up in a tiny house in a rough section of Toronto in the 60's along with 5 other siblings, her mother, and a father that dropped in and out of their lives. The Mousehouse Years is a physically beautiful book to read from and the story, which contains some heavy subject matter is tastefully and thoughtfully constructed. I read it from cover to cover in one sitting and found it both enjoyable and insightful.
October 20, 2019
I quite enjoyed this book!
After just finishing the RX graphic memoir, the images in this book didn't compare at all. Velvet does joke about how she is not an artist, and i do believe she did the best she could.
The story is interesting and chaotic as was her life. I was happy to read the ending, but the damage had unfortunately been done.
Meg was an outstanding Mom, witty, clever, and caring. It's too bad she hadn't have married a man who cared for her.
Well done, funny, and entertaining!
After just finishing the RX graphic memoir, the images in this book didn't compare at all. Velvet does joke about how she is not an artist, and i do believe she did the best she could.
The story is interesting and chaotic as was her life. I was happy to read the ending, but the damage had unfortunately been done.
Meg was an outstanding Mom, witty, clever, and caring. It's too bad she hadn't have married a man who cared for her.
Well done, funny, and entertaining!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews