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Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
Your parents won't talk about death. Neither would Roz Chast's. Then she drew all of it, and it's hilarious and devastating. 🗂️
Who it's for
Chast covers her parents' final years with brutal honesty and very funny cartoons: her anxious father George, her formidable mother Elizabeth, their packed Brooklyn apartment, falls, hospitals, assisted living and the money it costs.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? is a 2014 graphic memoir by New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. It covers roughly eight years, from 2001 to 2009, of her relationship with her aging parents, George and Elizabeth, as they live out their final years.
Where to find it
In print (Bloomsbury), widely held by libraries (Libby/Hoopla may carry the e-book). Not public domain.
Before you start
Heads up: Parents' decline, dementia and death.
Age: Ages 14+
What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?George Eliot, Middlemarch, Chapter LXXII
