The Old Man & The Swamp - Book Review

The nostalgia of what people believe of their family and what they know to be the truth offers a balance in the aspect of life. While the proliferation of video devices and the like can capture or at least maximize the amount to be remember, everything always rests in the minds of those that lived it.With "Old Man & The Swamp" [John Sellers/Simon & Schuster/197pgs], the author approaches the crux of the 70s and 80s in a tome about his father with little or no forgiveness but exceptional perspective. The key with any hero is if he is able to come to terms with his own mortality or at least flaws. As the perspective of his book, Sellers embraces an almost hypochondriac intention, not unlike that of Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke" but with a more definite sense of conscience.The crux of the book resides in Sellers' reconnecting with his father who, for most of his life, has been an aimless yet resolved person. While not mean and definitely unmentoring of his children, Mark Sellers' love as a person and a personality revolves around his conservation of snakes, specifically one: the copperbelly.The story of the courting of his parents, the disappointments and the lacks of jobs are not dissimilar to normal family unit but the splitting within the structure of the time period is. While the latch-key phenonmenon was one thing, both parents here stick around. Mark Sellers doesn't apologize for his actions but, through the view of his son, still remains remarkably oblivious to them.The event that reconnects them and forms the basis for the book occurs after years of polite phone calls and get-togethers over the holidays. John commits to going with his father to search for these specific snakes once more in the small swamps near where he grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While the more specific element of alligators and heavy bogs is not the thought here, the balance between the big city and the rural permeates his thoughts, especially when cell signal and hot water are not available. It tends to pull one back into the late 70s when none of this is available. John does offer anecdotes of his childhood including an interesting video game tournament excursion in Iowa that perfectly capture the innocence of the the technology in that decade.While the book does not resolve the family idealism, as no family can, it does offer a sweet and honest view into the diversifying nuclear politics of relations that continues to unwind in modern society. Out of 5, I give it a 2 1/2.