Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir

The graphic memoir opens by depicting the author, Roz Chast sitting on a couch with her aging parents, Elizabeth and George, in a series of comic-style illustrations. Chast candidly asks them if they’ve made plans for after their deaths. Her parents respond with awkward laughter. As the narrator, Chast reveals that discussing death, or spirituality, opposed her parents’ principles. They preferred a pragmatic approach to life. When asked about her belief in an afterlife, Chast’s mother stated, “When you’re dead, you’ll know” (12).

Chast explains that, in 1940, while pregnant, her mother climbed a staircase to change a lightbulb, which led to a hemorrhage. She gave birth, but the baby (Chast’s older sister) died a day later. Her mother referred to the incident as “that mess.” Her parents never disclosed where the baby was buried and avoided discussing it. Both George and Elizabeth had tragic backgrounds: They were the children of Jewish immigrants who came from Russia to America with nothing and grew up in poverty. They lost many family members to illnesses and the Holocaust. Reflecting on their history, Chast muses, “Who could blame them for not wanting to talk about death?” (14).