Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
This was a bracing memoir about dealing with the end of your parents' lives. Roz Chast, a cartoonist for The New Yorker, reminisces on the last several years of her parents' lives. From her realization that they need her help to the hospital stay that convinces her to move them into assisted living to their eventual deaths, she talks about all of it. And she doesn't sugarcoat anything. It becomes clear, over the course of the book, that Chast has a contentious relationship with her parents. That's probably an understatement. She moved out when she was sixteen. When the book opens she hasn't been home in nearly two decades, despite living nearby. But she does have a strong sense of familial duty. When she realizes how hard things have gotten for her mom and dad, she steps right in to help, and the three of them fall right back into old habits. There's a lot of humor in this book, but it's all gallow's humor. Even after it's all over, you get the s...