You Can Only Yell at Me for One Thing at a Time: Rules for Couples by Patricia Marx, Roz Chast
My rating: 3/5 cats
just in time for valentine’s day, patricia marx and roz chast team up again, after their earlier collaboration—Why Don’t You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?: A Mother’s Suggestions—this time focusing on the perils of relationships, marriage, and co-habitation with humor and frazzled-line drawings. there is much wisdom within these covers, from a most succinct and accurate definition of marriage:
Marriage is one of you secretly turning the thermostat up and the other secretly turning it down and so on and so on until one of you dies.
to a mantra-worthy piece of advice:
Think “What would Romeo and Juliet do?”
Then do the opposite.
to a rule i’ve lived by for many years now:
If someone is very picky about how the laundry should be done, as opposed to shoving it all in the washing machine and then shoving it all in the dryer, that someone should do the laundry.
the secrets of their own respective romantic longevities will be unveiled, with tips on how to keep love alive, or to at least prevent a crime of passion from occurring.
some of the tips are eminently practical:
some are tough but fair:
and some are SUPER-HEALTHY AND NOT AT ALL DYSFUNCTIONAL:
for me, this was slightly less charming/LOL-worthy than their first collab, but it’s a fine gift to present to your romantic partner, even if they interpret the gesture as passive aggressive. after all—
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