A hilarious and heartwarming story of the complicated bond between father and son.
Forgiveness is a journey, the length of which differs from person to person. In John Sellers’ hilarious new book, The Old Man and the Swamp, forgiveness is a messy trek through a nasty, snake-filled swamp. And though it’s a journey filled with plenty of laughs, it’s also one that masterfully explores the strange relationship between father and son.
Brooklyn-based writer John Sellers is a self-proclaimed “furniture potato.” He prefers this title to the more popular “couch potato,” which he considers “too geographically limiting.” So why on earth would he decide to spend three days in Southern Michigan swamplands chasing snakes with his weird, outdoorsy dad? Welcome to The Old Man and the Swamp.
Though John is an indoor kind of guy, his father, a professional herpetologist, is definitely the outdoor type. John may be most comfortable watching reality TV shows from his futon, but his dad, Mark Sellers Jr., is most comfortable sludging around the back swamps of Michigan chasing the endangered copper belly snake.
Mark Jr.’s job may be interesting, but it’s never been lucrative. You’d think, given the potential dangers of chasing slithery, fork-tongued animals around secluded areas, that catching snakes would pay decently. This was certainly not the case in the early '80s when Mark began this career. John reveals, “He’d made just $400 in 1983; not coincidentally that was also the year he and my mom split.” Sadly, his passionate pursuit of all things reptilian cost Mark Jr. his family and financial stability and greatly strained the relationship between he and his children.
However, “Old Man Sellers' " complete disinterest in providing for his family wasn’t only because of his interest in snakes. Rather, he had a sort of “turn on, tune in, drop out” mentality. Though it may have been beneficial during the counter-cultural '60s, it did not jibe well with the familial responsibilities he had taken on years later. As John says, “while other fathers traded in their bell-bottoms for cheap business suits and toiled in jobs that didn’t ignite their passions in order to put food on the table, my dad refused to be a part of the rat race, no matter the consequences.”
His father’s attitude and actions hurt the family a great deal. Even through college and into adulthood, John’s book openly shares with readers the unnecessary burdens put upon him by his father. Now, as a recently married adult who has found some success as a writer, John wants to gain a better perspective as to why his father has chosen his particular path and reconnect with him in the process. So he decides to enter into his father’s strange story. Better put, he decides to enter into the swamp with his dad for some father-and-son snake chasing.
And so the two men embark on one of the oddest father-son activities imaginable. At this point, his father is more of a burnout than a hippie. Though readers are bound to be a bit disappointed with this bad dad from the get-go, Mark Jr.’s odd obsession with snakes is not only fascinating, it’s infectious. Even the most committed “furniture potatoes” will want to jump into his “two-tone Subaru Outback truckster” and go on a snake expedition with Mark Jr.
John’s own experience of the swamp is not as awful as he imagined. At first, he’s kind of excited about it. But the trip takes plenty of nasty turns. The hot water in the cabin stops working, meaning no hot showers and no coffee. John catches more than a few glimpses of his dad “exposing a pot-belly and a farmer’s tan.” And then there’s all the industrial-strength DEET they have to cover themselves in. While all these things make the trip grosser for John, they make the book a lot funnier for his readers.
The “long, strange trip” does have some positive experiences, however. Even with their strained relationship, John’s swampy voyage helps him better appreciate his dad’s line of work. Their pleasant rapport and humorous banter make the journey all the more enjoyable. During their time together, John and his father recall past excursions they have taken—some good, some awful. The most interesting trip is one John, his brother and his father took in 1983 to the Twin Galaxies arcade. This arcade is owned and operated by Steve Wiebe, the two-time Donkey Kong champion who was featured in the recent documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. In visiting these past trips, Old Man and the Swamp ends up being as much about shared memories as it is about chasing snakes.
This is a phenomenal book, through and through. It travels difficult territory—from the swampy marshes to the troubled past between a father and son—with humor, grace and honesty. And while he certainly doesn’t sweep his father’s less-noble actions under the rug, he doesn’t write Mark Jr. off as some deadbeat dad. Instead, what emerges is an honest and nuanced portrait of a man who, though infuriating and weird, is still John’s dad. Though he probably would have preferred not having to chase snakes through a swamp to figure this out, it sure is an interesting way for readers to come to a greater appreciation of a parent.
