King of King Court by Travis Dandro Review

Travis Dandro’s childhood memoir King of King Court is about his biological father, Dave, whose psychological problems lead him down a dark path of crime, addiction and hurting his family. It’s a compelling story that sees Dave’s behaviour get worse over time. When he can’t get his prescription painkillers he turns to heroin, then his relationships crumble, and his behaviour becomes more desperate to fund his habit - it’s a sad depiction of what drug abuse does to a person.

Dandro tells the story well, hinting at Dave’s mental problems early on before revealing all towards the end, showing the cycle that trauma can sometimes cause. I appreciated that Dave isn’t simply a one-dimensional villain - there are glimpses of Dave’s humanity scattered throughout. Like Travis seeing his father passed out and vulnerable after he wakes Travis up in the middle of the night to fight imaginary monsters in the kitchen, and the story of why Dave feels the need to numb himself with opioids constantly.

It reads like a tragic story too because you can see Dandro’s mother really did love Dave and Dave too did seem to want to be a father to Dandro but couldn’t overcome his demons to do that. And, though Travis grows to hate his father for what he puts them all through, you get the sense here that, looking back after so many years, Dandro feels sorry for Dave more than anything.

The art is very evocative even if the characters are drawn somewhat cartoonishly throughout. It’s an odd choice that Dandro draws himself with pupil-less eyes. Dave is always wearing sunglasses too so you rarely see his eyes - maybe the two are connected, Dandro showing he’s his father’s son in this visual way?

It’s a fairly long book at nearly 500 pages though the pages fly by, particularly when Dave’s behaviour becomes increasingly reckless and danger seems forever looming for the Dandro family. That said, this book could’ve been edited down a bit. The dream sequences (Travis riding his blow-up clown through the sky, the Mona Lisa grabbing him) and a lot of his day-to-day childhood routines were either pointless or boring, as was the episode where his family briefly moves in with an alcoholic relative.

Still, I really enjoyed King of King Court. It’s a powerful portrait of how untreated trauma can ruin not just one life but an entire family’s.