Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

OK I must admit I was trying to avoid reading this book.  I know that Roz Chast is a well respected cartoonist who has been published on the cover and inside The New Yorker magazine.  She won the coveted  Reuben Award for Best Gag Cartoon in 2013 from the National Cartoonist Society.
She has written other books and now has won awards for this book, including the Kirkus Award for nonfiction and is a finalist for the National Book Award for nonfiction.

But lets face it, this is not a topic anyone of a certain age who has elderly parents is looking to read for pleasure.  In the end, despite the challenge of reading her lettering style, the idea of reading a graphic depiction of how to handle the subject of elderly parents turns out to be unescapable.

Of course now after reading the book I am telling all my friends about it.  So I now see why it is so popular.  It is a subject that so many of us are going through, or have been through or even though you might hope to avoid, you will go through at some level.  Chast's experience is more involved than mine but it is funny how much of my own experience I see as I am reading the book.  She does a wonderful job of showing the reader how your parents slowly are changing and slipping away sometimes without you really being prepared.  She also shows how the relationship developed years before when you were really the child has set the stage for how much influence and control you will have over your stubborn parents.  The changes in your parents health and sense of reality also sneaks up on them and it is hard for them to realize they are not as capable of taking care of themselves as they once were. They do not realize they have changed, inside they still think they are younger than they are on the outside.  There is so much that any reader can relate to in this book that makes it a great book.  It is a quick entertaining way to unwind after a long day visiting your parent at the assisted care facility.

So in the end, it is like going to a group therapy session or at least out for drinks with friends and sharing your stories about life with elderly parents that gives you a chance to see that you are not alone and maybe even a laugh about the hard times.  It will help you keep things in perspective as you also help your parents through old age.