The New Yorker Magazine began as a humor magazine almost a century ago, and it continues to provide incisive wit in its cartoons. Roz Chast is one of the magazine's veteran cartoonist; she has been working for The New Yorker since the late 1970's. Roz's view of the world is a singular view: she writes and draws about her own life, her own worries and neuroses, and somehow they are ours. Roz has just published a new book of drawings and observations about something so many of us can relate: aging parents. The book is hilarious, poetic and sad, and includes her trademark comic narratives, realistic sketches as well as photos and hand-written observations as if from a diary. She chronicles her parents' decline over the course of a few years with wit and honesty. In my interview of Roz for my series on Funny Women, she spoke about the book, her parents and being a woman in field dominated by men.
Liza: You and I have known each other for about 25 years, are the same age and began at The New Yorker within a year of each other. We have gone through single life, dating, marrying, having kids, and now this: aging parents. I hate to think what's next....
I really enjoyed your new book about your parents decline and death, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? You seem to effortlessly open up in this book about your feelings about both of your parents and your upbringing. I think readers must be moved by your honesty, as was I. How difficult was that?
Roz: In a way, it would have been more difficult to write a dishonest, rosy-glow kind of book: "I remember the good old days of my childhood. Everything was great. My parents were saints, and I was a selfless, perfect daughter. If only they had lived till they were 120." A few more sentences like that would have given me an aneurysm.
Roz: It was not painful. It was deeply interesting to observe my mother closely and to draw her. During those last months, she wasn't speaking much, if at all, and it was a way for me to be with her. It felt very natural.
Liza: Was it easy to overcome inhibitions about the funny side of your parents decline?
Roz: Some things really did seem funny to me. I have inhibitions about a lot of things, but if something is funny, I try to get it down on paper before Emily Post kicks in.
Liza: Why is death funny? Have you done many cartoons on death over the years?
Roz: I've done a lot of death cartoons-- tombstones, Grim Reaper, illness, obituaries... I'm not great at analyzing things, but my guess is that maybe the only relief from the terror of being alive is jokes.
Liza: How much do you think has your parents' behavior entered into your work over the years? Does one have to have a difficult childhood in order to be funny?
Roz: I'm sure that my parents' behavior has entered my work, I'm sorry to say. I don't think you need to have a difficult childhood to be funny, but it helps. Haw haw.
Liza: When did it dawn on you that humor was something you were good at?
Roz: Early, I think. Hard to remember.
Liza: I remember when we were both starting out in the 70's at The New Yorker, there were only three of us gals: you, me and Nurit Karlin. I myself didn't think much about it then, although I thought it was kind of cool that we were unique in that regard. How did you feel about it then? And currently, how do you feel about being a woman in a field that is still dominated by men?
Roz: Being female was just one more way I felt different and weird. I was also a young 'un, and also my cartoons were not like typical New Yorker cartoons. I don't think too much about the gender aspect nowadays.
Liza: It is changing, however. Why do you think more women are entering the world of humor now?
Roz: Maybe because women are entering all fields of employment more now. We have jobs and do things, just like regular people!
Follow Liza on twitter at @LizaDonnelly
