Ethel & Ernest
Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs, published by Knopf in 1999, is a poignant and original depiction of the author’s parents’ lives from their first meeting in the 1920s until their deaths in the 1970s. This 103-page book captures the experiences of Ethel and Ernest, solid members of the working class, as they navigate the challenges of the twentieth century, including the Great Depression, World War II, and the advent of modern technology.
Readers will find a blend of biography and personal memoir in this work, presented in a strip-cartoon format that combines detailed illustrations with true-to-life dialogue. The narrative explores the emotional landscape of Ethel and Ernest as they adapt to a rapidly changing world, offering insights into their lives while also serving as a social history of the era. The book’s engaging portrayal of ordinary people living through extraordinary times provides a unique perspective on the cultural shifts of the period.
Official synopsis Publisher
Poignant, funny, and utterly original, Ethel & Ernest is Raymond Briggs’s loving depiction of his parents’ lives from their first chance encounter in the 1920s until their deaths in the 1970s.
Ethel and Ernest are solid members of the working class, part of the generation (Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation”) that lived through the tumultuous era of the twentieth century. They meet during the Depression — she working as a chambermaid, he as a milkman — and we follow them as they encounter, and cope with, World War II, the advent of radio and t.v., telephones and cars, the atomic bomb, the moon landing. Briggs’s portrayal of his parents as they succeed, or fail, in coming to terms with their rapidly shifting world is irresistably engaging — full of sympathy and affection, yet clear-eyed and unsentimental.
The book’s strip-cartoon format is deceptively simple; it possesses a wealth of detail and an emotional depth that are remarkable in such a short volume. Briggs’s marvelous illustrations and succinct, true-to-life dialogue create a real sense of time and place, of what it was like to experience such enormous changes. Almost as much a social history as it is a personal account, Ethel & Ernest is a moving tribute to ordinary people living in an extraordinary time.
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