I had very high hopes for this official history of a well respected world leader. The publisher, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. sent me a review copy last fall and I was immediately impressed with the artwork. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as impressed with the writing.
The history contained in the book is accurate to the best of my knowledge, and Mandela’s life is certainly interesting enough for me to force my way through reading the entire book, but the narrative style is dull and unsuited to the graphic novel format, where one could tell the story much more effectively using images and dialogue instead of treating the artwork as mere illustrations to accompany walls of text.
The bottom line here is that if you are looking for a biography of Nelson Mandela that has good information and nice illustrations, this book is worth your time. If you are looking for a quality graphic novel, using the criteria generally considered for rating items in that format, you will be disappointed. The quality of the art is better than adequate, good even, but the failure to truly adapt the narrative style to the format being used was disappointing. I am glad I read the book for the history it contains, but I ended up giving my copy away after I read it as it is highly unlikely I would read it twice.
