Can’t We Talk About Something More Graphic? Memoirs With Pictures

Roz Chast's Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? is her memoir of caring for her ailing parents, who in general do not think death will occur if it isn't talked about. Chast, a cartoonist for the New Yorker, combines text with graphics to tell the story of her parents' decline and its effect on her, their anxious, only child. Chast brings a great deal of humor, much at her own expense, to a tale that could have been monotonously grim. Relationships are at the core of this book, both parental and marital. Chast's parents are opposites in personality, and yet somehow are married for over fifty years. Chast looks after both of them at great cost to her peace of mind, whether they like it or not. If you've ever had to care for an elderly loved one, you will recognize much here, and if you have yet to do so, here is an emotional companion.

Alison Bechdel, of Dykes to Watch Out for fame, has written two graphic memoirs about her parents. Fun Home deals mostly with Bechdel's younger years and her exacting, distant father. He is a funeral director and English teacher in their small town. He is also a closeted gay man. Are You My Mother? finds Bechdel dealing with menopause and her relationship with her mother, a creative type stifled by her marriage. More uplifting than Fun Home, this book finds Bechdel and her mother coming to an understanding, based on their shared experience and gifts. Both books are deeply philosophical and beautifully illustrated. While there is certainly some humor in these books, these are not the yuk-fests that her graphic novels are. Prepare to be moved.

Stitches, by David Small, is a graphic memoir about a pathologically uncommunicative family. Small's parents take him have so many x-rays done of his sinuses that they give him a cancerous lump on his neck. Small isn't told he had cancer, he just has a "harmless" operation that ends up severing a vocal cord and leaving a nasty scar.  Small's adolescence is even more difficult than average because of this, but he triumphs to become a award-winning children's book illustrator. A National Book Award finalist, this tale makes manifest the dreamlike imagery of childhood with subtle power.