Salt Green Death takes its title from a line in James Joyce's Ulysses, further excerpts from which are interwoven throughout and seem to provide something of a template for the meandering stream of consciousness form of the narrative structure of the work, while the expressive distortions of the British painter, Francis Bacon provide a point of reference for the stunning and haunting visuals created by Thorsen to bring you into the maelstrom.  While the primary focus is on Joseph O'Dwyer, child number four in the O'Dwyer family – who was institutionalized for most of his adult life, during which period the treatment regimes he was subjected to are shown to be largely a series of failures – it can more accurately be described as a chronicle of the entire family, who migrated all together from Ireland to Canada in 1927, in pursuit of a better life. The artistic methods and manner of the portrayal work together to capture the bleakness that permeates this chronicle of misfortune, ignorance, failure and death that at last provides an empathic reconsideration of what would otherwise be forgotten casualties of the cruelties of the 20th Century.

We've posted a selection of pages from the book >> HERE << to prepare readers for the experience that awaits.

Here are further details courtesy of its publisher, Canada's Conundrum Press:

On November 21, 1948, Joseph O’Dwyer’s suicide attempt was interrupted when a bystander pulled him out of the Kitsilano Pool in Vancouver. This set a series of events in motion that ends with O’Dwyer’s institutionalization at British Columbia’s first forensic psychiatric facility, Colquitz Hospital.

Still reeling from the untimely wartime deaths of O’Dwyer’s siblings, O’Dwyer’s parents reach out to the institution repeatedly, requesting permission to bring him home. When they finally succeed in their request, the visit takes an unexpected turn. O’Dwyer is sent away once again, to an institution that used procedures that were considered unconscionable even then.

But what circumstances brought O’Dwyer to the Kitsilano Pool in the first place? In Salt Green Death, researcher and artist Katarina Thorsen delves into 15 years of Joseph O’Dwyer’s life via patient files and other historical documents. This is her attempt at piecing together meaning and context in the experiences of the O’Dwyer family—a small slice of historical graphic medicine brought to life in coloured pencil and graphite.

And here are some insightful comments from a pair of fellow comics makers:

“This is a remarkable book: a graphic novel that will challenge your notions about the meaning of the genre. In essence, it is an investigation into a history of family trauma but Thorsen’s presentation of the material that has constituted her research turns Salt Green Death into a catalogue of innovations: ingenious compositional turns and strategies make every page a delight, a map of visual possibilities. Doctor’s reports, family letters, administrative records join in a dance with feathers, fur, yarn, bone: you will not find another book so lovingly devoted to textures of such variety. Thorsen has the mind of an archivist, the eye of a painter and the heart of a poet." — Bishakh Som, Apsara Engin

“Katarina Thorsen has pushed creative non-fiction in astonishing new directions. Salt Green Death invites the reader to take an active role in sorting through documents and correspondence, drawing their own conclusions and inferences along the way. And she weaves (sometimes literally) the sorry saga of the O’Dwyer family together with her vivid charcoal drawings and buoyant, color renderings of the natural world, lending poetry and grace to this tale of utter heartbreak.” —Matt Madden, 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style

Publication Details
ISBN: 9781772621068  | 196 pages  |  8 x 10 inches  |  Full colour  |  trade paper