Graphic Novel Review: Chlorine Gardens

Posted on September 3, 2019 at 9:46 am by Gene Ambaum

Chlorine Gardens by Keiler Roberts. Koyama 2018. 9781927668580. 128pp.

An autobiographical graphic novel about parenting, marriage, creativity, and aging, or at least those were the parts that spoke to me. I’m hard pressed to describe how much I loved this book or to explain how funny the deadpan moments were, right up through the end of the thank you’s at the end of the book (don’t skip ahead). Roberts made me both laugh and cry when she was sitting with her family, waiting for her grandpa to die. My favorite parts: Roberts talking shit about her current dog (she liked her previous dog better), the pages that are a meditation on different folks’ favorite things, her parents, and the moment when she tries to explain what I assume is the Korean dessert 팥빙수 to a friend.