Description:
A graphic memoir and adapted oral history of Unit 371, an inpatient AIDS care hospital unit in Chicago that was in existence from 1985 to 2000. Examines the human costs of caregiving and the role art can play in the grieving process.
Brief description: MK Czerwiec is a nurse who uses comics to contemplate the complexities of illness and caregiving. She is the artist-in-residence at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, co-curator of GraphicMedicine.org, and co-author of Graphic Medicine Manifesto (Penn State, 2015).
Review Quotes:
"Rather than the usual medical tales of professional-minded strangers treating faceless victims, Czerwiec's vignettes become about bonding intimately over suffering and death, watching the community be decimated at the same time as mutual nursing was building connections. Some of the pages are heart-wrenching, and the story has the potential to be supremely depressing, but Czerwiec wrings hope from the honesty of her simple, cheerful cartooning style."
--Publishers Weekly