Graphic Novel Review: Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir by Denise Dorrance

Posted on May 23, 2024 at 6:27 am by Gene Ambaum

Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir by Denise Dorrance. The Experiment, 2024. 9781615199051. 256pp.

Dorrance’s graphic memoir opens with her trying to call her elderly mother, who lives alone on a quiet street in Iowa. After an email arrives from an Aging Services rep who went to speak with her mother, saying she didn’t answer the door, Dorrance panics. And that’s good because her mom was on the floor, conscious but confused. Is it possible her mother has dementia? Dorrance hops on a plane in the UK and heads home to find out.

Things in Iowa are not great. Her mom is in the hospital and seems super fragile, not to mention forgetful. The city is covered in snow. And Death starts visiting Dorrance to chat about her mom. (It’s probably no surprise that her mother’s health insurance coverage becomes a source of more fear than Death; I laughed out loud when this created what was, for me, the most hilarious moment in the book.)

My grandmother had dementia at the end of her life, and Dorrance’s mother’s lost expression as she continued to ask about her missing purse reminded me of the final five years of my grandmother’s life. This book shattered me. There’s a clarity to its art and layouts that make it a stunning example of what comics can do; the story moved backward and forward in time and yet never lost me. I loved the use of art from old postcards, and the ending is perfect.