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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
Really tough time rating this one- I enjoyed the memoir and the format but I was left feeling that I wanted something more? Maybe more conclusions about what was learned. At the same time, maybe the point was to paint a picture of what end of life is like - messy, complicated, etc. I feel like this is one I will think about for awhile.
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Loved this book. I laughed out loud so many times, and then there are such poignant moments -- most strikingly, to me, Chast's series of drawings of her mother in the last weeks of her mother's life. Chast is also brilliant at looking back at her childhood and evaluating how her relationship with her parents came to be the way it was. I would have liked to see a little bit more in that direction (reflecting on how her parents affected her eventual development -- how she got to where she is as a seemingly successful, relatively contented mother and career person), but then again the book's subject is her parents' end of life experiences. I definitely got a sense of each of her parents, how they lived, and their generations, and some of the insights (the Crazy Closet, the "Blast from Chast," the wheel of death/death/death) are phenomenal. And great drawings, as always.
Describes exactly how I would feel about taking care of my aging parents. Doesn't shy away from embarrassing or potentially painful aspects of the whole process. Beautifully drawn. This book was way too short.
The style of drawing seemed really appropriate to the topic. It is honest, amusing, heartfelt and sad all at once.
If you are coping with caregiving this book validates your experiences. Funny. Truthful. She describes the exasperating experience of those last decades.
This book was okay, but not necessarily for me. It is incredibly important to take the time to process grief, particularly if one's feelings towards the person who died are ambivalent. Yet...there were a few parts that I think could have been left off in the publicized version, like the photos of her deceased parents' room (it just felt unnecessarily invasive for me, but others may enjoy it). Also, nitpicking, but I personally just prefer a clearer font if there are going to be multiple pages of just text in a graphic novel.
