received from volunteering at "Friends of [redacted] Public Library"

Either I'm premenopausal, or I'm developing a new respect for the emotional gut-punch that illustrated memoirs convey where mere words fail. Similar to Bui's The Best We Could Do, the sometimes crude drawings did not stop my sudden moments of sobbing.
Chast does not shy away from brutal honesty in this book about the dying process of the biggest button-pushers in her life - her parents. As someone currently wading in these waters, I can commiserate with her guilt & anger. If you've ever had to experience the ordeal of trying to take on aging parents, or hoarders, or aging parents who are hoarders, you will question who the hell taught you basic logic (because it certainly wasn't them).

Another book kindly sent on to me from Echode, one long on my wish list. I have always loved Roz Chast's comics in the New Yorker and this had great reviews. My parents are now both long gone, and I never had to take care of them quite as much as Ms. Chast, but still, I expect it will resonate with me on many levels.

Review: Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Roz Chast) Roz Chast is one of my favorite cartoonists for the New Yorker magazine, and this memoir about the final years of her parents is chock full of her very recognizable illustrations. In spite of the rather difficult premise of the book, I found it easy to read and enjoyable. She had a rather fraught relationship with her parents, especially her mother, and in the memoir which recounts their decline and death, she tells us both of her parents' backgrounds (to help perhaps her understanding of them) and her own coming to terms with how she feels/felt being around them. She is a very dutiful daughter and a very forthright author, not shying away from some cringe worthy moments. I did not have to go through any of the things she did with the demise of either of my parents; they did not linger in an assisted living facility nor a nursing home. That is just luck, perhaps. So no worrying about money to take care of them in their final years, no years of my life devoted to figuring out the next steps in their care as they slowly declined. And I absolutely don't want my own daughter (a single child, like Roz Chast) to be burdened by that enormous and painful task; of course we all want to 1) just live healthy forever and not die, thereby avoiding the whole problem and 2) be taken quickly to avoid pain to ourselves as well as those whom we love. I think that Roz Chast created a beautiful book, and in the making of it, I do sincerely hope she was able to comfort herself for the long difficult journey of so many people caring for their older parents.

on the bench near the entrances