A long time ago, I wrote a post about death. Then I wrote one about Swedish death cleaning. And surely you’ve noticed in recent days a lot of talk about death in my writing about Palestine. Today we’re going to kind of veer in a different direction, but like everything in life, it’s still all connected.

I recently discovered cartoonist Roz Chast. One of my kids had gotten one of her books out of the library. I don’t know what drew me to it, but I ended up requesting a bunch of her other books from the library and made my way through most of them.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve found graphic novels that I liked. I’ve tried before, but I rarely got through the first few pages. Chast’s format kind of feels like a journal with drawings or the Sunday comics with some commentary, rather than the typical graphic novels my kids tend to read.

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir, by Roz Chast, is a funny, sad, and thoughtful book where Chast shares the journey of her relationship with her parents, their relationship with each other, and how their family dealt with her parents’ aging and eventual death.

It’s about coming to terms with your parents as imperfect people, people who at some point have to transition from authority figures in your life (at least for my generation) to something else. It’s about how hard it is for human beings to be vulnerable, and consistently kind. It’s about pain and resentment. It’s about the absurdity of the human condition. The handwritten text, silly illustrations, and funny anecdotes made me feel like I was hearing a story from a friend.

My description may make the book sound completely unappealing, and if you’ve lost a family member really recently, it might poke a tender spot. However, I found it refreshingly honest and relatable. It made me think, and it made me laugh.