Reading about Roz Chast’s parents in her cartoon memoir
‘Can’t We Talk about Something Pleasant?’ makes me feel
Almost normal. I do know how to use the toaster,
I can change a light bulb, open cereal packets neatly
so it doesn’t look ‘as if a raccoon had tried to get into them’
AND I was comfortable using the new stove after only
six months. Compared to them I’m a genius.
Meeting the Parents
But I do ‘walk around with my feelers out’ like her old man
and ‘get distracted by interesting words thereby missing
the larger point of what was being said’. And I am a fast eater
like her mum. ‘Stop gobbling your food’, I was told as a kid,
[and am still told from time to time].
I’m only on page 30 of this 230 page memoir but I’m enjoying
meeting the parents. It’s like meeting me in a book.
- what book are you enjoying at the moment?
- Have you ever ‘met yourself’ in a book? how did it feel?
John Malone 
I’m currently enjoying “All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House,” which is also a memoir. I believe that I HAVE met myself before in a book, and in some cases it helped give me a new outlook or understanding of myself:)
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don’t know that one but it’s a great title so will look it up; it’s good when you meet yourself in a book — it’s a safe way of assessing your own situation, although it can be scary 🙂
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I looked it up; I see it’s a 2008 book; I’m curious — how did you come across it after all this time?
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Hey John, I met myself in ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’. And still do whenever i reread it. It is crazy to find myself in a 6-8 years old girl, specially since i m close to 40.
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if I remember correctly that eight year old girl had a maturity well beyond her years, I picture myself somewhat grandiosely as Atticus Finch in my more benighted moments 🙂
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