in a "graphic memoir," Roz Chast looks back: "Can't We Talk About Something More PLEASANT?"

Roz says she was never able to get her parents
to talk about their wishes for, you know, the end.




Her parents, who were born 11 days apart in 1912 and had known each other practically all their lives, "had tough lives," says Roz, "way, way tougher than mine."

by Ken

It's not exactly a secret that I am in awe of Roz Chast. For my money New Yorker cartooning has never been richer and more robust than it is now, and there's no New Yorker cartoonist whose sensibility and art reach me more directly. I've been hooked since her, er, unorthodox cartoons began appearing in the magazine more than 35 years ago. And now she has done something big and different and special. Here's how it's introduced on newyorker.com:

SKETCHBOOK BY ROZ CHAST

Roz Chast, a New Yorker cartoonist since 1978, is the author of the graphic memoir “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?,” which will be published in May.

I don't know whether this is the whole thing that's now posted online, but it's huge, tracing Roz's parents' history back through their forebears, stories she heard "my whole life," on through their long life together -- they were both children of Russian Jewish immigrants who had endured every sort of excruciating hardship in the Old Country and "had come over from Russia at the turn of the century with NOTHING." Her parents grew up poor, "two blocks apart in East Harlem, New York City," and "had tough lives -- way, way tougher than mine."

From the picture of closeness above, it shouldn't be assumed that everything between Roz's parents was harmonious.



Roz offers lovely portraits of their Depression-molded habits, including her mother's fanatical thriftiness. There's a wonderful sequence about her insisting on buying 80%-off stockings -- "They're GIVING THESE AWAY!!!" -- even though she could afford full-price stockings, and even though "the only sizes left are extra-extra-extra-extra-petite and QUINTUPLE QUEEN" and the only colors available were "avocado and lobster bisque." (UPDATE: I should have added something here like: "You'll never believe the use to which the 'bargain' stockings were finally put.")

FURTHER UPDATE: To see the whole "80% off" stockings sequence, see Thursday's post.

Says Roz: "Between their one-bad-thing-after-another lives and the Depression, World War II, and the Holocaust, in which they both lost family,"



Roz never could get them to talk about it, and it became more of an issue as they began slipping. As they approached their 90s, they became increasingly less able to take care of themselves, but refused to accept assistance.



The "Place," Roz tells us, was a "top-of-the-middle-of-the-line" one, perhaps even "bottom-of-the-top-of-the-line."




There's a lot more, but I don't want to spoil it any more for you than I already have. I just wanted to give you a taste. This is something special.


UPDATE: It's in the magazine!

I sort of assumed that what was posted on the New Yorker website was destined for publication in the print edition. Now that I have my March 10 issue, I can report that Roz's Can't We Talk About Something More PLEASANT? "Sketchbook" fills 12 pages of the issue.

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