cover image The Old Man and the Swamp: A True Story About My Weird Dad, a Bunch of Snakes, and One Ridiculous Road Trip

The Old Man and the Swamp: A True Story About My Weird Dad, a Bunch of Snakes, and One Ridiculous Road Trip

John Sellers. Simon & Schuster, $14 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-4165-8871-9

Sellers (Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life) and his father never had an ideal relationship: as a child he preferred video games and solving Rubik cubes to the outdoors, while his idiosyncratic father was "a self-made weirdo" who gave up the Lutheran ministry to pursue a less-than-middling career in the study of snakes. Their bond was strained even more after his parents divorced, and his father spiraled farther down with nominal income, drinking, and even more weirdness. But with his father approaching 70, they embarked on a redemptive journey to a swamp in Michigan in search of the endangered copperbelly water snake%E2%80%94his father's most cherished species. The quest for snakes and finding peace with one another form the book's narrative drive%E2%80%94both pursuits offering great potential. Although the ending of the book surprises and pleases, Sellers's storytelling, early on, relies too heavily on jokes and repetitive references to television shows and movies, with little to say on nature for readers with an authentic interest. Even though he eventually warms to his father's obsession, Sellers admits he still finds snakes "kind of gross." (May)