**review of advance reader copy provided through Goodreads**
"Falling in love is easy. Agreeing about how to load the dishwasher is hard." Roz Chast an**review of advance reader copy provided through Goodreads**
"Falling in love is easy. Agreeing about how to load the dishwasher is hard." Roz Chast and Patricia Marx's latest collaboration hits the nail on the head as they take an honest look at what it means when couples sign up to love, and live with, one another.
You Can Only Yell At Me For One Thing At a Time does not shy away from the uncomfortable, the difficult, the ugly, or the disgusting. It's all there on view and puts it in a light that makes these particular relationship challenges, well, relatable. Each page is filled with New Yorker cartoonist, Chast's colorful and familiar illustrations accompanying a one or two liner piece of 'advice.' The thing is, it doesn't feel like advice from your mother or friends that don't quite get it. Rather, it's advice from someone who's lived through these very struggles, and, somehow, has the clarity to see them for what they are.
The comforting thing about these quips is that they all seem imminently familiar. "If I spend the day concocting an elaborate dish, you must take a bite. If you spit it out, you must still compliment me." Or, "whoever cares the most that there are crumbs in the toaster gets the de-crumbing job." Those nagging frustrations that are inherent to sharing a life with someone become instantly lighter and less of a force as page by page they are brought out into the open. You mean, we're not the only couple that has this issue? Other people argue over the thermostat? Or talk their way out of trouble by repeating 'I love you' to the point of annoyance?
The book is a great meditation on what it means to turn your life over to someone else, or, at least agree to share it along side them. As Chast writes in the introduction, noting that carrying all our own baggage is like dragging an ox cart behind us, and that we may eventually be lucky enough to tie our cart to someone else's, "the point is that life is a schlep, and it's easier to get through it with another ox."...more
Glad I found Brian Andreas after seeing his colorful posters in a handful of places. Slowly trying to collect all his story collections which just makGlad I found Brian Andreas after seeing his colorful posters in a handful of places. Slowly trying to collect all his story collections which just make me feel so good inside to read, re-read, and share....more