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Graphic Medicine
Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park
A tour-de-force and eight years in the making, this is a powerful, superbly-drawn and deeply moving portrait of a young man coming to terms with his dying father, and with his own life, as he takes care of the old man in his final months.
When Nye's father phones to wish him a happy birthday, and reveals he has been ‘certified for hospice’, Nye slumps down on the nearest doorstep in shock. Unemployment means that he is free to move in to the trailer park where his father lives, and assume the role of chief carer. Their daily schedule of pill counting and medical checks unfolds into an extraordinary world where the protagonist is a minotaur, his father a rhinoceros, social workers are sea turtles and mobile homes move atop gigantic elephants. Curious neighbours and medical and social care workers – whether man or beast – become their friends, and the family comes together once more. And as the old man battles against emphysema, his shortness of breath becomes more evident until his speech bubbles, previously charged with pithy comment, are mostly filled with pauses.
When Nye's father phones to wish him a happy birthday, and reveals he has been ‘certified for hospice’, Nye slumps down on the nearest doorstep in shock. Unemployment means that he is free to move in to the trailer park where his father lives, and assume the role of chief carer. Their daily schedule of pill counting and medical checks unfolds into an extraordinary world where the protagonist is a minotaur, his father a rhinoceros, social workers are sea turtles and mobile homes move atop gigantic elephants. Curious neighbours and medical and social care workers – whether man or beast – become their friends, and the family comes together once more. And as the old man battles against emphysema, his shortness of breath becomes more evident until his speech bubbles, previously charged with pithy comment, are mostly filled with pauses.
310 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2012
2 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Aneurin Wright
9 books10 followersThough Aneurin (Nye) Wright is the son of a West Texan Architect and a London writer, he was born in the wilds of rural Idaho. He earned a BA in English Literature from Yale and a BFA in Illustration and Communication Design from the Pratt Institute.
He was hailed as ‘an amazing talent’ for his first comic Lex Talionis: A Jungle Tale (Image, 2004). He was the lead animator for the Short History of the United States cartoon sequence in Michael Moore’s Academy Award-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine.
He lives in Brighton, England with his graphic designer wife, Lyndsay. They're currently awaiting the arrival of their first child, codenamed Sprout.
“Things to Do…” is his first graphic novel.
He was hailed as ‘an amazing talent’ for his first comic Lex Talionis: A Jungle Tale (Image, 2004). He was the lead animator for the Short History of the United States cartoon sequence in Michael Moore’s Academy Award-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine.
He lives in Brighton, England with his graphic designer wife, Lyndsay. They're currently awaiting the arrival of their first child, codenamed Sprout.
“Things to Do…” is his first graphic novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
September 26, 2019
A long memoir about a young man who had to take care of his dying father in hospice (after his older sisters had take primary responsibility for him for many years). I'll never forget my mother dying in hospice at my sister's home for a week with most of her sons and daughters at her side, a rich and powerful experience. Aneurin (Nye) had not been close to his complicated father for many years, so the familiar arc we expect here is that they come to some understanding.
I'm reading all the Graphic Medicine graphic memoirs. This one is a big book on an important and familiar topic that I had picked up a few times and put down, not a fan of the art style, but it's an ambitious project, took place over 8 years, obviously personal and painful. As with Maus, many characters are depicted as animals and fantasy characters, the author as minotaur, his father as rhinoceros, and so on.
I would call the art style masculine--reminded me of Thor, Hulk, though Nye has in mind Samson. A "muscular" style, bold thick lines, dark, somewhat (for me) forbidding, not inviting. This is maybe because the author sees the struggle as epic, superhuman. He rails against the health care system, depicted as pigs, and so on. I think it's useful for the medical community to know how patients and their families experience dying and death. I love hospice, and the hospice system looks great here, as much in the background as they are.
I'm reading all the Graphic Medicine graphic memoirs. This one is a big book on an important and familiar topic that I had picked up a few times and put down, not a fan of the art style, but it's an ambitious project, took place over 8 years, obviously personal and painful. As with Maus, many characters are depicted as animals and fantasy characters, the author as minotaur, his father as rhinoceros, and so on.
I would call the art style masculine--reminded me of Thor, Hulk, though Nye has in mind Samson. A "muscular" style, bold thick lines, dark, somewhat (for me) forbidding, not inviting. This is maybe because the author sees the struggle as epic, superhuman. He rails against the health care system, depicted as pigs, and so on. I think it's useful for the medical community to know how patients and their families experience dying and death. I love hospice, and the hospice system looks great here, as much in the background as they are.
February 28, 2020
Heavy subject matter here as the author moves in with his his terminally ill father, who has just begun hospice care for his emphysema. As their shared future dwindles, they find themselves dealing with the history of abuse, disappointment, and resentment that has created a rift between them.
Wright chooses to illustrate himself, his father and several other key characters as animals while his mother, sister and the rest are portrayed as human. It's odd, but pays off quite effectively in a scene near the end.
I almost rounded down to 3 stars for the dream sequences and metaphorical depictions of Wright's inner struggles, but he also had a payoff for those segments in the final pages that really worked for me.
I've read several good books in this Graphic Medicine series. I need to seek out more of them.
Wright chooses to illustrate himself, his father and several other key characters as animals while his mother, sister and the rest are portrayed as human. It's odd, but pays off quite effectively in a scene near the end.
I almost rounded down to 3 stars for the dream sequences and metaphorical depictions of Wright's inner struggles, but he also had a payoff for those segments in the final pages that really worked for me.
I've read several good books in this Graphic Medicine series. I need to seek out more of them.
June 6, 2016
Certainly one of the longest titles of any book I've read. As the book opens, Wright's father is in hospice care with emphysema. Wright travels to be with him and help with his care. So we've got a son bonding with a dying father, and it's all that you're probably thinking. We've got gross realities (almost the first page, in fact), the touching moments, the flashbacks to younger days, the juggling of parental care and girlfriend time, getting to know the medical staff (Surprise! They actually have private lives and personalities) ... What saves this from middle-of-the-road-dom and cheap sentiment is Wright's artwork, particularly his color sense and storytelling abilities. The color work is lovely, using a deliberately limited pallette to good effect. Wright also tells the story in fragments. We get scenes, but they don't always follow each other linearly. There are flashbacks, dream and fantasy sequences. Wright has thought about his story, chosen the moments that count, and deployed them to excellent effect. Yes, some (but not all) of the characters are depicted as anthropomorphic animals. It's odd, but it works. And there's a great moment where he's looking at his father's dead body and ... but that would be telling. Anyway, I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed this book. Definitely worth reading.
August 22, 2018
This book was way not for me. I found the narrative style and movement to be distracting and disjointed, and the rhino thing just made no sense to me at all. I struggled to comprehend some of the basic dynamics and events and was quite worried by the fact that for the most part cis men are portrayed as non-human animals (either super heroes or villains or more mundane rhinos?-- various kinds of characters/caricatures/animals) and cis women were humans (though sometimes a bit grotesque). It just, I really didn't appreciate this bizarre gender divide in the book and found it a bit disturbing.
June 17, 2015
Oh dear, I really want to give this a high score because there are times when it truly is original, powerful and moving. But there are also times when it doesn't work.
I'm not entirely persuaded by the overall shtick of replacing some of the key characters with animals. This is something of a cliche in comics since Maus- Dash Shaw portrayed an individual character as an animal (a frog) in Bottomless Belly button but there it reflected his own negative self-image and as such worked really well. But in this case it is less clear what the symbolism is and Aneurin does not really see the mythic Minotaur theme to its conclusions. So the selection of animal symbols, which characters are represented by them, and why some characters are not -seem somewhat arbitrary-
A similar confused pattern is showing the resentment of him and his mother symbolised as a vicious monkey (which, through reconciliation becomes a kitty cat): cute idea, but it doesn't work for me.
And for me the worst part was another metaphorical aside-liked by some of the reviewers here-where Aneurin imagines himself to be a superhero challenging the greedy capitalist pigs of Big Tobacco. Not only is the symbolism and the animal theme confused, but this a rather ugly and sophomoric kind of propaganda imagery. The moral situation is more complex and interesting than that. In my observation tobacco companies are all the more frightening because they are not immoral they are ammoral-they manage to ignore and compartmentalise the moral implications of what they do. And the father is not exactly a victim: he continued to smoke for years despite his children and wife imploring him to stop. This moral complexity of tobacco company complicity, addiction, and collective denial seems much more interesting to me than a black-and-white moral fable.
But Wright does do a great job in portraying his personal struggle, the process of death, and grief for a complex and challenging father. I want to recognise that Wright has taken on a really hard job and certainly this is worth the time reading,
I'm not entirely persuaded by the overall shtick of replacing some of the key characters with animals. This is something of a cliche in comics since Maus- Dash Shaw portrayed an individual character as an animal (a frog) in Bottomless Belly button but there it reflected his own negative self-image and as such worked really well. But in this case it is less clear what the symbolism is and Aneurin does not really see the mythic Minotaur theme to its conclusions. So the selection of animal symbols, which characters are represented by them, and why some characters are not -seem somewhat arbitrary-
A similar confused pattern is showing the resentment of him and his mother symbolised as a vicious monkey (which, through reconciliation becomes a kitty cat): cute idea, but it doesn't work for me.
And for me the worst part was another metaphorical aside-liked by some of the reviewers here-where Aneurin imagines himself to be a superhero challenging the greedy capitalist pigs of Big Tobacco. Not only is the symbolism and the animal theme confused, but this a rather ugly and sophomoric kind of propaganda imagery. The moral situation is more complex and interesting than that. In my observation tobacco companies are all the more frightening because they are not immoral they are ammoral-they manage to ignore and compartmentalise the moral implications of what they do. And the father is not exactly a victim: he continued to smoke for years despite his children and wife imploring him to stop. This moral complexity of tobacco company complicity, addiction, and collective denial seems much more interesting to me than a black-and-white moral fable.
But Wright does do a great job in portraying his personal struggle, the process of death, and grief for a complex and challenging father. I want to recognise that Wright has taken on a really hard job and certainly this is worth the time reading,
January 4, 2019
Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park by Nye Wright is a comic about a young man that has to take care of his father during hospice care. Nye's father has a lung disease that causes scar tissue to build up in his lungs and makes it harder and painful to breath. The art style is very simple in regards to color and shapes as there tends to be not much blending. I found the story to be touching but it was told in a very interesting way as both Nye and his father were bulls but everyone else was a normal human. The author gets a message across the reader that the decisions you make can directly influence the people around you. This is true because Nye's father didn't take care of himself and therefore Nye had to bury him early and take care of him for the last leg of his life. The most important image in this comic is when Nye "destroys" a cigarette company that caused his father to get the disease in the first place. Companies like that only care about money and not the well-being of their customers. This is not a bad comic overall but wouldn't be my first choice if I had the option to choose anything.
July 15, 2014
This book gave me sunburn. I sat out all day reading this powerfully illustrated graphic autobiography, and it gave me sun burn. Never mind, I was drawn way in, I lived with Nye and Neil all day, and I soaked up every page, often more than once, and I hated when it was over.
Wright's graphic style is damned visceral. Even though he and his father are a bull and a rhino (and the 'therapist' morphs through three different beasts: you can work out why) the emotions they both feel are so terribly human and so well conveyed... let's just say the conceits work. Not only do the characters' feelings move around and wrestle you into the page, medical lessons do, too.
Wright is one gifted illustrator and a fine writer to boot, and Trailer Park is so tender, so tough, and so very human.
I'm going to recommend Trailer Park to as many people as I can, but I'm not letting go of my copy; it's just too personal now.
Wright's graphic style is damned visceral. Even though he and his father are a bull and a rhino (and the 'therapist' morphs through three different beasts: you can work out why) the emotions they both feel are so terribly human and so well conveyed... let's just say the conceits work. Not only do the characters' feelings move around and wrestle you into the page, medical lessons do, too.
Wright is one gifted illustrator and a fine writer to boot, and Trailer Park is so tender, so tough, and so very human.
I'm going to recommend Trailer Park to as many people as I can, but I'm not letting go of my copy; it's just too personal now.
July 6, 2016
Not for me.
I really disliked the format (it felt sloppy and disjointed, but then too ordered with the constant title pages) and the conversations felt shallow.
A heavy topic with no weight carried by a (personally) awkward illustration choice.
Not for me.
I really disliked the format (it felt sloppy and disjointed, but then too ordered with the constant title pages) and the conversations felt shallow.
A heavy topic with no weight carried by a (personally) awkward illustration choice.
Not for me.
June 8, 2021
Ok so you can tell from the cover that this book has a lot of machismo going on; the two main characters are burly rhinos; probably 10% of the pages are full-sheet images of one or both of them hulking out in anger about something or the other, and all the women kind of look alike and are colored in red rather than blue. Still, as this is autobiographical about the physically and mentally difficult process of dying under, or helping a loved one die under, hospice, you can understand that underneath this male bravado is pain and fear. I appreciated the time given to the professional caregivers, and the portrait of the dad is one made with love despite spending almost the whole book on his shortcomings.
August 12, 2012
Aneurin Wright has created a masterpiece of art and storytelling in this amazing graphic novel. It is raw and tender and straight from the heart, and while reading it I felt as if I were right with Nye, going through all his emotions with him, not only of the death process of his father, but of all the complexities of the father/son relationship. I am not one to typically read graphic novels, but I found this to be one of the most powerful reads I have had in quite a while. I found myself crying many times , and by the end I had gone through a real catharsis. Isn't that the height of art and literature? I recommend this book for anyone, and especially anyone who has suffered or is suffering loss. Bravo, Mr. Wright!
August 24, 2016
Though Wright is an excellent illustrator, and ephysema is a pretty fascinating and terrifying condition which he documents well, overall I found this book to be a bit disjointed and fairly self-important without earning it. Felt like it was supposed to be confessional but he was holding a lot back. I do appreciate how he did a good job documenting the web of caregivers he was an integral part of.
November 11, 2016
The story was moving and real. I felt for the characters. I enjoyed the art. The art does a wonderful job of conveying emotion and what is going through the narrator's head. The parts where the panels stand alone without words are the most powerful. Activity 31: Drawing is, to me, the most powerful. It conveyed so well why people create, especially comics. That chapter is an excellent example of how expressive the medium of comics is. It is an excellent example of graphic medicine.
May 7, 2015
I picked this book up by chance in the waterstones sale thinking it may make a good retirement present for someone when I saw it was a graphic novel so i got it for myself. Surreal and beautifully drawn it tells the story of a man caring for his dying father. A beautiful and tender insight to masculinity and emotion. A Good Read for sure
November 20, 2017
Even if you haven't walked the path the author has, the pictures help describe the complex emotions that he felt. Maybe even better than words could. This is one of those books many can relate to where the characters have gone to a dark place we all inevitably spend some time in. Read this and feel less alone.
January 17, 2012
IT'S JUST RAINING ON MY FACE
March 4, 2012
One of the best graphic novels I've read and stared at in a LONG time. Attention to detail is incredible.
August 10, 2012
Excellent. Really excellent. Heart-rending account of a young man nursing his father through the last six months of his life as he dies of emphysema.
November 10, 2015
Really quite enjoyed this, a good mix of funny and sad, and the author of it is pretty nice as well
April 14, 2016
Such a beautifully illustrated story about loss and forgiveness. It'll break your heart in all the right ways.
June 19, 2016
Magnificent color work.
September 30, 2016
Absolutely stunning, rich artwork and inspired use of visual metaphor.
note: Some scenes of violent fantasies; one scene of abuse. Deals with death and dying.
note: Some scenes of violent fantasies; one scene of abuse. Deals with death and dying.
October 10, 2018
I read this in a few hours. I had never read a graphic novel before. It was pretty cool.
February 8, 2020
This book BLEW. ME. AWAY.
I picked this up at TCAF from UPenn''s Graphic Medicine collection. It kept staring at me from my book pile (there are a lot of stares there). Finally picked it up on a lazy Saturday and instantly regretted I hadn't read it immediately
The art style, and the comics medium in general, are a kind of magical realism which were the best vehicles for the story. The art is incredibly powerful and emotionally resonant. Witnessing a parent dying has to be one of the most surreal experiences and the reader is taken on that journey.
Using (some) anthropomorphic characters to tell a very human story is part of the genius.
This is a very personal book, and the deep honesty of it hits home.
Most of all, it's a story about a young man's relationship with his dying father that captures the fullness of life: grief, humor, resentment, impotent rage, and life after (not the afterlife).
I was so impressed with how it treats death as inevitable, but not terrifying. It's an end, sad for those who are left behind, but ultimately just another part of life.
I literally laughed out loud and cried. And it was definitely better than Cats.
I picked this up at TCAF from UPenn''s Graphic Medicine collection. It kept staring at me from my book pile (there are a lot of stares there). Finally picked it up on a lazy Saturday and instantly regretted I hadn't read it immediately
The art style, and the comics medium in general, are a kind of magical realism which were the best vehicles for the story. The art is incredibly powerful and emotionally resonant. Witnessing a parent dying has to be one of the most surreal experiences and the reader is taken on that journey.
Using (some) anthropomorphic characters to tell a very human story is part of the genius.
This is a very personal book, and the deep honesty of it hits home.
Most of all, it's a story about a young man's relationship with his dying father that captures the fullness of life: grief, humor, resentment, impotent rage, and life after (not the afterlife).
I was so impressed with how it treats death as inevitable, but not terrifying. It's an end, sad for those who are left behind, but ultimately just another part of life.
I literally laughed out loud and cried. And it was definitely better than Cats.
June 18, 2023
4.75 rating.
Graphic Novel, fabulously illustrated and a fast read. This was awesome. The author, a 29 year old man, leaves New York after losing his job as a Graphic Illustrator and flies to California to care for his father during the last months of life. I loved the depiction and description of Hospice --so accurate in a good way. The father and son have had a difficult relationship in the past, and their reconciliation is touching and beautiful and rings true.
I loved the main character and really all the characters in the story were brilliantly executed and sympathetic.
For anyone who has ever been or who is a Caregiver of someone on Hospice, I recommend this story, as well as physicians/nurses/health care providers who treat patients with Emphysema/COPD.
One of the best books I have read thus far in 2023.
Graphic Novel, fabulously illustrated and a fast read. This was awesome. The author, a 29 year old man, leaves New York after losing his job as a Graphic Illustrator and flies to California to care for his father during the last months of life. I loved the depiction and description of Hospice --so accurate in a good way. The father and son have had a difficult relationship in the past, and their reconciliation is touching and beautiful and rings true.
I loved the main character and really all the characters in the story were brilliantly executed and sympathetic.
For anyone who has ever been or who is a Caregiver of someone on Hospice, I recommend this story, as well as physicians/nurses/health care providers who treat patients with Emphysema/COPD.
One of the best books I have read thus far in 2023.
April 23, 2024
The author and I have a lot in common. I went through the process of hospice while my Grandma was dying of emphysema and lung cancer. Although many parts of our stories were similar, I appreciated the differences. The book is unique, strange, and disjointed at times, but that is exactly how the process of grieving a loved one before they pass goes. I loved the chaos and the quirkiness of the art style. It provided a bit of lightness when working through difficult points of the story. This book is really fantastic for those who are currently or have experienced the loss of a loved one in hospice. There is no wrong way to depict someone's personal experience with loss, and this book beautifully illustrates that.
June 24, 2019
A very moving, and possibly important comic, as it charts the painful waters of illness, and caring for a dying loved one. If that has any bearing on you, you are sure to get something from it. However, as a comic itself I found the art work a little sloppy and vague, making it harder to understand the oft difficult narrative - and it indeed must be difficult to narrate such a personal tale. The characters being rhinos/bulls made sense, but only v. briefly at the end - it was a rather laboured metaphor . A great attempt, but would say Wright needs to work on all his narrative and pencil skills, and then he could well make a truly great work.
March 2, 2021
Goodhearted and apparently open about family stresses. Animals standing in for human characters are well drawn. And when the father is shown in human form on his death bed it is really quite moving. All three female characters have red hair which made it hard for me to keep track of them. The ex-wife was clearly older looking but I never found the key to which was the sister versus the girlfriend and had to go to context clues. Dream sequences were completely lost on me. Not a bad book, but it didn't meet my expectations.
January 9, 2026
Beautiful, emotional, filled with the complexity that our personal and familial stories deserve but don’t always get. This story peels at the layers we all have built around our relationships with parents, especially those who were less than good at parenting. The illustrations are vibrant, almost performing an illusion of being animated, playing out a narrative that has the reader clutching their head and heart, wiping their eyes, and turning the page till no more pages remain.
April 10, 2020
Not my favorite medical memoir graphic novel in part because of the heavy “costumes” worn by the author and his father. Too distancing. A truly honest and deeply moving picture comes when the masks were removed. Wish the whole book was like that page.
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September 7, 2018Wow! Not as much hilarity as I expected from the title. very thought provoking.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews