Raw, funny, heartbreaking and brilliantly simple: Like all great art, Polar Vortex devastates in the deepest way. I can't wait to give this beautiful book to everyone I know.--Sarah Blake, New York Times-bestselling author of The Postmistress and The Guest Book

An honest, affecting graphic memoir about a messy series of compromises and reconciliations accompanying end-of-life caregiving.-- "Foreword"

Unsparingly honest and with an eye that refuses to waver, Denise Dorrance's graphic novel Polar Vortex is utterly original and unique, managing to both transcend and subvert its genre. Dorrance has rendered a story of geriatric elder care into something edgy, beautiful, visceral, irreverent and yet ultimately universal. I cannot recommend it highly enough.--Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Paper Palace

A pitch-perfect piece of work--frank and self-critical narration, incorporating photos and postcards, dread-drenched pacing, and beautifully limpid blue-gray/russet art. . . . Dorrance's gorgeous, plaintive story speaks to those caring for aging parents and realizing they must eventually prepare for their own exits. A lyrical read-alike for Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast.--Library Journal, starred review

Gentle lines, soft color palette, and quippy narration bring a sense of comfort and familiarity to the bittersweet story of family, memory, and the inevitability of loss. Dorrance demystifies the challenges of elder care with this sensitive snapshot of the many ways in which memory shapes family history.-- "Publishers Weekly"

Polar Vortex is enchanting, every page lovely to look at, so funny and plangent and full of sly wisdom . . . it's also strikingly relevant. . . . Dorrance's drawings are as expressive and as deft as those of Alison Bechdel. . . It is all, in short, magical: a triumph of art and feeling. I loved it.--The Guardian, Graphic Novel of the Month

Dorrance's upbeat, airy linework packs an unsuspecting emotional wallop. . . . A delicately drawn, unconventional chronicle of loss.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Moments of light and joy . . . run throughout the book . . . Ultimately, the book is hopeful, while not sugar-coating the realities of caring for a parent with dementia.-- "The Comics Journal"

There's a poignancy tinged with sharpness to Dorrance's drawings that reminds me of Posy Simmonds, as she captures with a mere flick of her pen the complex emotions between an adult daughter and her increasingly frail, childlike mother--the guilt, the uncertainties and the early stages of grieving.--Collagerie

Winner of the LDComics Rosalind B. Penfold Prize
Short-listed for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition

"Splashes of color interrupt the blue haze of Dorrance's poignant memoir, which hovers over her mother as she develops dementia and follows Dorrance's journey home to the Midwest to care for her one winter.-- "The New York Times Book Review"

With gallows humor, visual ingenuity, and a whole lot of heart, Dorrance chronicles the two chilling months she returned home to care for her ailing mother--while a literal polar vortex looms in the background.--Oprah Daily

At times both heartbreaking and hilarious, Denise Dorrance delicately balances both sides of an unplanned reversal of responsibility, respectfully navigating both sides of the emotional rollercoaster of a woman coming to terms not just with the mortality of her mother, but her own.--Popzara

A poignant, heartbreaking, and darkly funny graphic memoir that perfectly captures the grief, nostalgia, and chaos of caring for an elderly, dementia-impaired parent in crisis.--Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books

Publisher: Experiment, LLC

Pub date: 2024-03-05

Length: 256 pages