Saturday 28 January 2012
Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park When You're 29 and Unemployed
When Aneurin 'Nye' Wright's 'Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park When You're 29 and Unemployed' dropped through my letterbox it sounded like a bomb had gone off. Delving into the graphic memoir's incendiary contents only confirmed that what I now had in my possession was one of the reasons Kindle and their ilk won't put paid to the printed word.
The combination of time-consuming (the author took some eight years to bring the idea from inspired idea to page), masterfully drawn and touchingly constructed description of a young man coming to terms with his dying father is full of adult themes told in a very human way.
It’s on Nye’s birthday that he receives a call from his father that will change the course of his young life. When Nye slumps down on the street it’s because his father’s just revealed that he has been ‘certified hospice’ following a battle withemphysema.
Nye, who is out for work, uses the limited time with his father to become his chief carer and confidant. It’s a role that comes at a cost, as the commitment his girlfriend is seeking initially remains unreciprocated owing to the constant routine of medical checks, doctor’s house-calls and pill counting.
This all takes place on a trailer park where the protagonist is a minotaur, his father a rhinoceros, social workers are sea turtles and mobile homes move atop gigantic elephants. Yet somehow, none of that ever seems odd or out-of-place.
The story moves at-a-pace and the beauty and detail of the drawings add a certain poignancy to the unfolding tale of decline and imminent death.
Nye portrays his father’s shortness of breath via speech bubbles which were initially charged with pithy comment, but later mostly filled with pauses.
Nye, who currently resides in Brighton, was the animation director for the Short History of the United States cartoon sequence in Michael Moore’s Academy Award-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine.
His first book, Lex Talionis: A Jungle Tale (Image, 2004), saw him rightly hailed as ‘an amazing talent.’
Meanwhile, Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park When You're 29 and Unemployed, should see the author on the podium at award ceremoniesand topping end of year ‘best of’ lists.
Things To Do In A Retirement Home Trailer Park by Aneurin Wright is published by Myriad Editions and priced £19.99. For more information visit www.myriadeditions.com/Trailer-Park
by: Mike Cobley
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