Aneurin Wright’s debut graphic novel, “Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park ... When You‘re 29 and Unemployed,” is a shape-shifting chimera stuffed between book covers; a comic that explains the nuances of emphysema and elder care, a meta-meditation on death, loss and coping mechanisms, a tale of father-and-son reconciliation in which the father is a curmudgeonly rhino and the son a headstrong -- and totally ripped -- spectacle-wearing Minotaur. It’s all at once heartbreakingly sad, visually arresting and, for anyone who has helped a parent navigate the end-of-life process, strangely comforting.
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"Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park ... When You‘re 29 and Unemployed" By Aneurin Wright (Pennsylvania State University Press) |
The story line is so straightforward and familiar it would be unremarkable as a traditional novel: A struggling young artist has a rocky relationship with his difficult father. After the elder man‘s losing battle with emphysema has pushed him to the “certified for hospice” stage -- essentially six months left to live -- the reluctant son crosses the country to move in with, and serve as caregiver to, his dying father. The title comes from the book’s chapter headings, each one a tongue-in-cheek “activity” that fills the duo‘s day-to-day existence, including “Counting Pills,” “Bathtime” and “Reconciliation.” (TNS)
