Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir

For lovers of graphic novel memoirs in the tradition of Funhome, Blankets, Marbles and Little Things.
I loved it, but I am the target audience. About a daughter who returns home to help her dementia stricken mother make her final transition out of her home. Dorrance looks honestly at her own life, from her rocky relationship with her sister to her indecision over the next steps.
The graphic novel draws its narrative power from the uncertainty and mixed feelings of real life. Visually, Dorrace's realistically drawn characters float in a world of black lines and splashes of colors that smudge and blur. Even when she introduces frames they hang off kilter on the page. More often her characters travel seamlessly down the page, haloed by show more blues, blacks and grays that give the story a chill that echoes the blizzard it's characters are living through. I'm especially drawn to the watercolor-like background colors smudge across boundaries and flow between scenes. Truly masterful work. show less

A daughter rushes home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when her elderly mother is injured by a fall in the home where she lives alone and exhibits symptoms of dementia during her hospital stay. What follows is a heartbreaking sink into a morass of assisted living, insurance rigmarole, and family conflict between estranged siblings over care decisions and property.

It's fairly engrossing, but Denise Dorrance portrays herself in such a negative light it becomes harder to maintain sympathy as the tale progresses. First up, she's been living in England for thirty years, and despite being from Iowa she has adopted an English accent that everyone remarks upon throughout the story, bringing up those connotations of appropriation personified by Madonna show more and Hilaria Baldwin. Dorrance also dwells a lot on her narcissistic concerns about having to help her mother and presents a very one-sided portrait of the sister with whom she has fallen out. Finally, she portrays herself driving intoxicated in a climactic scene.

Despite the above, Dorrance is a relatable narrator going through a tough time that a lot of people are facing or have already experienced. And her art style and quirky celebrity cameos keep the story lively even in the face of overwhelming gloom. show less

Denise Dorrance’s memoir about the two months of her life when she suddenly must fly back to America to care for her mom with dementia who desperately needs to find her last home.

The way insurance was in this novel was both shocking and yet didn’t surprise me at all. Made me think about my own grandma who had dementia in her last years who was in a nursing home. My mom never got into details about it with me, but she is 8 of 9 children, and the surviving 7 pitched in to help with her care at the place. Still - dementia is hard. The last time I visited my grandma before she passed, she thought I was my mom but had no idea who my mom actually was (I am my mother's mini-me).

Unlike the author though, I’m close with my mom and my show more sisters, so even though I worry about what it will be like for my mom in her older years, I know the three of us have got it handled.

This isn’t a happy story. You kind of know where it’s going when you go into it, you know?

But, nowadays, everyone at least knows somebody who had dementia - maybe not a close family member, but someone. This book will kick you in the heart, that’s for sure. show less

graphic memoir - a woman travels from her home/family in London to look after her mother with severe dementia in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in winter storms of January 2019.

very well done (I can see why it got such good reviews) with skilled storytelling (as you would expect from a noted cartoon artist) and artwork. I liked how it showed the complex feelings around the author's mother and her relationship with her sister. There is so much packed into this short graphic memoir ❤️.
Highly recommended --

This book is just sad. I cannot finish it. It’s a memoir of a woman who is constantly wanting to run away from home, but has return home when her mother with dementia falls ill. She has to do what she can to take care of her mom while laminating her brother‘s death and her sisters indifference. These two can’t get along. Most of this book at the halfway point has been how she feels about her mom and a little bit about her mom‘s history, It's also about what she hates about living in the US. There are some interesting things, for example death as a character shows up on multiple pages and even talks with the protagonist. Death is looming over the entire story. The reader knows where this book is headed but I have no desire to get show more there. It’s sad the protagonist is unlikable and I really have no desire to finish this book. show less