{"product_id":"cant-we-talk-about-something-more-pleasant-a-memoir-9781608198061","title":"Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e#1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eBestseller\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn her first memoir, \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker \u003c\/i\u003ecartoonist Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast's memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen it came to her elderly mother and father, Roz held to the practices of denial, avoidance, and distraction. But when Elizabeth Chast climbed a ladder to locate an old souvenir from the \"crazy closet\"--with predictable results--the tools that had served Roz well through her parents' seventies, eighties, and into their early nineties could no longer be deployed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhile the particulars are Chast-ian in their idiosyncrasies--an anxious father who had relied heavily on his wife for stability as he slipped into dementia and a former assistant principal mother whose overbearing personality had sidelined Roz for decades--the themes are universal: adult children accepting a parental role; aging and unstable parents leaving a family home for an institution; dealing with uncomfortable physical intimacies; managing logistics; and hiring strangers to provide the most personal care. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn amazing portrait of two lives at their end and an only child coping as best she can, \u003ci\u003eCan't We Talk about Something More Pleasant\u003c\/i\u003e will show the full range of Roz Chast's talent as cartoonist and storyteller.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRoz Chast\u003c\/b\u003e grew up in Brooklyn. Her cartoons began appearing in the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker \u003c\/i\u003ein 1978. Since then, she has published more than one thousand cartoons in the magazine. She has written and illustrated many books, including the national bestseller \u003ci\u003eGoing into Town\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWhat I Hate: From A to Z\u003c\/i\u003e, and the collections of her own cartoons \u003ci\u003eThe Party After You Left\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTheories of Everything\u003c\/i\u003e. She is the editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Comics 2016 \u003c\/i\u003eand the illustrator of Calvin Trillin's \u003ci\u003eNo Fair! No Fair! \u003c\/i\u003eand Daniel Menaker's \u003ci\u003eThe African Svelte\u003c\/i\u003e, all published in Fall 2016. She was awarded the Harvey Award Hall of Fame Award.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50707587727634,"sku":"9781608198061","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f859ce02-58e1-4f34-963e-50cd9581f472.jpg?v=1734499134","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/cant-we-talk-about-something-more-pleasant-a-memoir-9781608198061","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}