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Summary
A very touching, while also very funny account of the author’s experience of handling and dealing with problems attached to ageing parents. Told in the form of comic strip and cartoon and using family photos and documents to tell the story. The themes in this book would be common to many readers, and are issues that many struggle with – ageing and infirm elderly parents leaving their family home to live in an institution, and all the feelings and dramas that brings.
My Thoughts
This is an incredibly touching, while also humorous, account of two lives coming to a close while their only child struggles with doing all she can for them, and at the same time honoring their long lives. The writing is beautifully personal, emotional and very moving.
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant is a beautifully presented hardcover book in cartoon form. Many of the cartoons and drawings are ‘laugh out loud’ funny while at the same time, heartbreakingly sad.
Recommendation
This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I’m so pleased to have had the opportunity to read it. Since reading it, I’ve also dipped in and out of different sections at times. It’s possible to delve into small sections and still enjoy and indentify with the trials of trying to do the best by ageing parents.
It also made me wonder about my own children and how I could make my ageing easier for them. In my opinion this book is ‘must read’.
“A touching, unflinching, darkly hilarious account of her mother and father’s physical and mental declines, their deaths within two years of each other, and her anxious, loving exertions to ease their passages…..Memorial services seek to provide consolations and perhaps a glimpse of guidance for speaker and mourners alike. Chast’s rich graphic elegy, at once subversive and sustaining, offers both’ – Dan Wasserman, The Boston Globe.
#1 New York Times Bestseller
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
About The Author
Roz Chast grew up in Brooklyn. She has been a cartoonist for the New Yorker since 1978 and has written and illustrated many books.
Published by
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