Patrick Allaby | The Water Lover

Patrick Allaby

The Water Lover

Wolfville, Canada: Conundrum Press, 2021

116 pp., 4.25 x 6.25", softcover

Edition size unknown

I may have been predisposed to enjoy this: Patrick is a friend and former colleague, and the various locations he depicts are places I frequent regularly (the local record store, cinema, diner, etc). Also, diabetes runs rampant in my family. I don't know if I have it yet, but I certainly can relate to the titular water loving. I bought half a dozen vases that resemble oversized glasses and either drink from them or the one-litre soda stream bottles. I have a water-dispensing refrigerator and am about to purchase a second. I wake up with cotton-mouth regardless of whether or not I got stoned the night before. I easily drink the twenty cups a day that Patrick in The Water Lover drinks. The elusive Prince record he tracks down is also my favourite (I still have the vinyl copy I bought when it was first released). I, too, am worried about the limitations of rural hospitals in a cash-poor province. 

Luckily, I never landed in intensive care, which is what happens to Patrick the character, and I'm pretty sure Patrick the author. All of Allaby's works come with a disclaimer that the work is fiction, but it almost feels like the "This is a true story" title card from Fargo (which originated in the film, but the series really leans into it). The card reads "This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in... At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred." I suspect most viewers saw this as a wink from the Coen Brothers, if not a device to heighten the narrative, or to remind one of the ways storytelling manipulates. 

Released in May of this year, The Water Lover is Allaby's second title for Conundrum Press, after Martin Peters, which was published in 2019. The book explores the realities of chronic illness, which begin with the author being diagnosed with diabetes at age 21, during the final semester of his undergrad studies. After this he is forced to redirect his obsessive tendencies (record collecting, TV viewing, online shopping, etc.) towards simply staying alive. 

Much of Allaby's work is designed to be performed, as narrated slide shows with a live audience, edited somewhat on the fly. The panel a page format of the pocket-sized Conundrum25 series maintains that slide show feel and serves the content well. 

My knowledge of graphic novels is limited (to say the least) but I gather that since the 1994 publication of Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner's Our Cancer Year, candid works about illness have become commonplace (for artists' books it can be traced back to 1973, with John Giorno's Cancer In My Left Ball). But Allaby's sense of minutia and personal colour - as well as straightforward drawing style - make this a solid addition to the canon. 

The Water Lover is available here, for $10 CDN.