One dirty tree A novella

Comics-format memoirs recounting a troubled adolescence in an eccentric family have become a prominent subgenre of the graphic biography category. Van Sciver's addition to the bunch recounts his childhood as one of nine siblings in a Mormon family crowded into a rundown New Jersey house they called One Dirty Tree (after the street number, 133). His father, who was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, struggled with both the family's finances and his temper. Noah took solace in his older brothers' comic books and soon began drawing his own stories. Van Sciver intersperses glimpses of his equally troubled present-day life, in which he struggles to make a living as an alternative-comics artist and to hold onto his demanding girlfriend. The connection between his painful childhood and his difficult adulthood is inescapable. Van Sciver's mildly cartoonish color drawings display a slightly gawky uneasiness that's appropriate for the rudderless lives of Noah and his parents. While not as ambitious as Van Sciver's debut, The Hypo (2012), this more modest work is equally rewarding.--Gordon Flagg Copyright 2018 Booklist

The title of this moving graphic memoir from the Ignatz-nominated Van Sciver (Fante Bukowski Three) comes from the nickname his siblings gave their overcrowded ramble of a childhood home, which still haunts him. Using the same wavy and sketchy but emotionally direct style throughout, Van Sciver alternates between revealing himself as an insecure and financially strapped 29-year-old and as a frightened kid navigating the random nature of life at One Dirty Tree. In the former story line, he works food-service, agonizes over getting anywhere as a cartoonist, and feels judged as a loser by his girlfriend. This is overshadowed by the latter, Alison Bechdel-esque narrative, in which his large Mormon family "was in decline" from a golden age he never experienced, except through photos of "smiling children in new clothes, with new toys." Van Sciver's childhood was loomed over by his sometimes violent bipolar father and frustrated writer mother, neither of whom did much parenting. The simple figure drawings are situated in text-heavy frames and, befitting the repressed emotions roiling under the surface, the colors are muted, bordering on drab. While affectionate in many memories, Van Sciver also powerfully illustrates the scars raked across an adult life by a chaotic upbringing. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.