Twentysomethings Ann and Lewis aren’t so lucky they’re each stuck with a mother unable to let go of the past. Once someone manages to find a way out, they never look back. There’s a key moment in the story when the pair wanders into an empty apartment, delighted by its blank canvas: a chance to write their own narrative rather than live the outlines already sketched.Failin, Oregon, is a town of left-behinds, a mecca for antique-shop junkies, and a wasteland of urban decay. Growing up in a town burdened with failure and history (old buildings that still stand, not due to preservation efforts but merely because no one’s made an effort to tear them down), Anne and Lewis feel stuck, defined not only by their parents’ ideas of who their children are, but also by the smallness of their vista.
As per the former sentiment, what did the recently deceased hang onto? How aware was he or she that the end was near? It makes you think about your own mortality and your own piles of stuff, the tangible evidence of your own history. Here’s where the central metaphor comes in: going to an estate sale derives as much from morbid curiosity as the desire to find a bargain. The creators clearly have perspective on that sentiment (the older adults are rendered with the same sensitivity as the younger ones) and can still relate to it. Writer Sara Ryan and artist Carla Speed McNeil sharply capture the genuine and desperate longing to forge your own way, whether your parents have their act together or not. Somehow they come together, spark, and try to both understand their parents and leave the older generation’s legacy behind.
Both characters are young adult children of single mothers. Anne is an unemployed photographer who lives in the aptly-named Failin, Oregon Lewis works for his mom, who organizes estate sales for a living. That’s not entirely a joke Bad Houses is the product of two finely aware young minds, and in its love story/Bildungsroman, this compilation also investigates intense issues that emerge as one steps into adulthood. If the scariest thing you can imagine is turning into your parents, then maybe you should go out and pick up Bad Houses this Halloween week.
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