# Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir - Hardcover

by **Roz Chast** (Author)

**#1 _New York Times_ Bestseller**

**2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST**

In her first memoir, _New Yorker_ cartoonist 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.

When 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.

While 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.

An amazing portrait of two lives at their end and an only child coping as best she can, _Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant_ will show the full range of Roz Chast's talent as cartoonist and storyteller.

### Author Biography

**Roz Chast** grew up in Brooklyn. Her cartoons began appearing in the _New Yorker_ in 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 _Going into Town_, _What I Hate: From A to Z_, and the collections of her own cartoons _The Party After You Left_ and _Theories of Everything_. She is the editor of _The Best American Comics 2016_ and the illustrator of Calvin Trillin's _No Fair! No Fair!_ and Daniel Menaker's _The African Svelte_, all published in Fall 2016. She was awarded the Harvey Award Hall of Fame Award.

**Number of Pages:** 240

**Dimensions:** 0.9 x 9.55 x 7.8 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** May 06, 2014

**Award:** New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Award (2014)

**Award:** New England Book Award (2014)

**Award:** National Book Awards (2014)

## Details

- **Price:** 28.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 28.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir - Hardcover

---

> Source: [Smart supply deals](https://smartsupplydeals.com/products/cant-we-talk-about-something-more-pleasant-a-memoir-hardcover)
> Updated: 2026-07-23