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The Joy of Quitting
From toddler antics to doctor appointments, Keiler Roberts breathes humour and life into the fleeting present
Keiler Roberts affirms her status as one of the best autobiographical cartoonists working today with The Joy of Quitting, a work encompassing 8 years of hilarious moments in the author’s life, mined from the universal. It spans her frantic child-rearing, misfires in the workplace, and frustrating experiences with the medical system.
In one strip, the author and her daughter Xia have itchy scalps. Roberts asks her husband to check her hair and all she gets is the cursory remark that he just sees “a bunch of bugs.” In another, Xia describes her oddly shaped poop in precise detail. We then see Xia sitting at the breakfast table telling the family that she recently learned the word “nuisance” and everyone agrees it’s a good word for her to know. As Xia grows from toddler to big kid, the family evolves and its dynamics shift in subtle ways, changes that pass all too suddenly in real life captured forever with Roberts’s keen observational humour.
The Joy of Quitting is Roberts’ magnum opus of domestic comedy, highlighting how she continues to work within and expand the rich tradition of autobiographical comics. Again and again, Roberts shows us that most meaningful moments or gestures often don’t have any meaning at all.
Keiler Roberts affirms her status as one of the best autobiographical cartoonists working today with The Joy of Quitting, a work encompassing 8 years of hilarious moments in the author’s life, mined from the universal. It spans her frantic child-rearing, misfires in the workplace, and frustrating experiences with the medical system.
In one strip, the author and her daughter Xia have itchy scalps. Roberts asks her husband to check her hair and all she gets is the cursory remark that he just sees “a bunch of bugs.” In another, Xia describes her oddly shaped poop in precise detail. We then see Xia sitting at the breakfast table telling the family that she recently learned the word “nuisance” and everyone agrees it’s a good word for her to know. As Xia grows from toddler to big kid, the family evolves and its dynamics shift in subtle ways, changes that pass all too suddenly in real life captured forever with Roberts’s keen observational humour.
The Joy of Quitting is Roberts’ magnum opus of domestic comedy, highlighting how she continues to work within and expand the rich tradition of autobiographical comics. Again and again, Roberts shows us that most meaningful moments or gestures often don’t have any meaning at all.
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First published October 25, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
January 7, 2023
The most ambitious (and just plain largest) collection of Keillor Roberts' memoir or autobio comics, a Drawn & Quarterly production. This book collects from a decade of work, from five previous titles--Powdered Milk (2012), Miseryland (2015), Sunburning (2017), Chlorine Gardens (2018) and Rat Time (2019)--like a summary of her life so far. I categorize this as "disability" because Keillor has both MS and is bipolar, and these experiences have been part of earlier collections, but in this one we learn even more about the weirdness of her brain (or maybe, with the weirdness of my brain, I just forgot what I had read and all of this I had read before). Always funny, especially as we get deeper into the way her mind works. But it is not mostly about her disabilities; those are just part of her life. The main focus of the book is her family, and motherhood, as always.
Her daughter Xia always figures in here as the comic (funny, I mean) hero as in all the books, that Art Linklater, Kids Say the Darndest Things (I know this ages me as it was a popular book in the sixties or seventies) angle, but in this book many more people from her family and friends seem to figure in the joking around. And dogs, always dogs. Bigger book, more family members and friends, the classes she teaches. An expanded horizon. And it is funny, for sure.
The title is not so easily--or at all-explained; as I imagined, it was about that contemporary concept of "quiet quitting." And so I liked this title, hoping it would connect to that idea, or to slow growth, or just getting off the rat race maze, but here it is, Keiler more productive than ever, not really ever quitting, and I can't complain.
The key to the (apparently) acquired taste of this book for some Goodreads readers is that Keillor is deadpan humor always, you have to get that. This is true for her art, too; sort of deliberately deadpan drawing, with no one smiling though jokes are being made all the time. I love all these people. I read it in a matter of hours, but I now actually own all of her books, yay.
Her daughter Xia always figures in here as the comic (funny, I mean) hero as in all the books, that Art Linklater, Kids Say the Darndest Things (I know this ages me as it was a popular book in the sixties or seventies) angle, but in this book many more people from her family and friends seem to figure in the joking around. And dogs, always dogs. Bigger book, more family members and friends, the classes she teaches. An expanded horizon. And it is funny, for sure.
The title is not so easily--or at all-explained; as I imagined, it was about that contemporary concept of "quiet quitting." And so I liked this title, hoping it would connect to that idea, or to slow growth, or just getting off the rat race maze, but here it is, Keiler more productive than ever, not really ever quitting, and I can't complain.
The key to the (apparently) acquired taste of this book for some Goodreads readers is that Keillor is deadpan humor always, you have to get that. This is true for her art, too; sort of deliberately deadpan drawing, with no one smiling though jokes are being made all the time. I love all these people. I read it in a matter of hours, but I now actually own all of her books, yay.
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November 26, 2023Keiler Roberts es una auténtica especialista a la hora de plasmar sobre el papel sensaciones, sentimientos e ideas que nos solemos guardar para nosotros mismos (ya sea porque son tabú, incómodas o inadecuadas).
En sus viñetas sucede la vida, tan grande y tan pequeña como lo es de forma cotidiana. La autora nos narra sus vínculos familiares, sus ideas sobre la maternidad, su vida marital… y también su relación con su profesión y su enfermedad. Y lo hace de una manera brutalmente honesta, tan directa y tan carente de disfraces que es imposible no empatizar con ella.
Este es el tercer libro de la autora que leo… porque, de momento, solo tiene tres publicados en España. Cuando tenga treinta, habré leído los treinta. El espejo en el que convierte sus cómics es absolutamente adictivo.
En sus viñetas sucede la vida, tan grande y tan pequeña como lo es de forma cotidiana. La autora nos narra sus vínculos familiares, sus ideas sobre la maternidad, su vida marital… y también su relación con su profesión y su enfermedad. Y lo hace de una manera brutalmente honesta, tan directa y tan carente de disfraces que es imposible no empatizar con ella.
Este es el tercer libro de la autora que leo… porque, de momento, solo tiene tres publicados en España. Cuando tenga treinta, habré leído los treinta. El espejo en el que convierte sus cómics es absolutamente adictivo.
January 26, 2023
I'm glad this got published! I've been wanting to read Roberts' earlier work but most of it was published by Koyama and is a bit difficult to track down now. This, her second volume from D+Q, collected work from Powdered Milk, Miseryland, Sunburning, Chlorine Gardens and Rat Time.
The only one I've read is Sunburning. So there was some overlap for me, but not much. All the themes are familiar though.
A perfect volume for newcomers to Keiler Roberts.
The only one I've read is Sunburning. So there was some overlap for me, but not much. All the themes are familiar though.
A perfect volume for newcomers to Keiler Roberts.
November 9, 2022
it's good soup gang
December 22, 2022
Intimate, vulnerable, and silly. Somehow, she makes comics about bipolar disorder that find out loud laughs in the mundane and deep relatability in the hardship of it all. I’ll keep buying and reading every one of Robert’s graphic novels. A *great* recommendation/gift for parents, a singular deadpan humor on motherhood.
November 3, 2022
Another winning collection of Keiler's deadpan but heartfelt and hilarious day-to-day comics. She's so, so good.
January 16, 2023
everyone here talking about how funny this book is (and it is), but I also cried a bit
probably the best collection of comics/graphic novel I've ever read
probably the best collection of comics/graphic novel I've ever read
September 6, 2024
✨ "On some days, though, every object blooms with and associated memories feelings... Nothing exists without meaning and sentimental value."
Outlier here but I didn't care for this at all. It's very slice-of-life and offers a glimpse into domesticity but not being a parent myself, I couldn't relate at all. Nor did I find the 'humour' funny. It was also hard to tell the characters apart at times.
Overall, I would say this book and I are on completely different frequencies.
Outlier here but I didn't care for this at all. It's very slice-of-life and offers a glimpse into domesticity but not being a parent myself, I couldn't relate at all. Nor did I find the 'humour' funny. It was also hard to tell the characters apart at times.
Overall, I would say this book and I are on completely different frequencies.
May 31, 2023
I wasn't a huge fan of my previous Keiler Roberts read (My Begging Chart), but I found The Joy of Quitting to be a huge upgrade. Whereas My Begging Chart was meandering and only sporadically amusing, The Joy of Quitting could very much be retitled Kids Say the Darndest Things. The focus, for the most part, is on Keiler's relationship with her daughter, which largely finds Keiler relaying the amusing sentiments of her precocious child.
I laughed! Many times. Keiler delves into more serious topics as well, but these are just removed enough from each other by the humorous vignettes to actually land. The only bad thing replicated from My Begging Chart is the complete disregard for any separation between stories. Each panel flows into the next regardless of whether they're related.
I laughed! Many times. Keiler delves into more serious topics as well, but these are just removed enough from each other by the humorous vignettes to actually land. The only bad thing replicated from My Begging Chart is the complete disregard for any separation between stories. Each panel flows into the next regardless of whether they're related.
January 30, 2024
This is so indescribably cathartic. There is someone out there besides you who has anxiety, has been both helped and let down by medical professionals, has a love and hate relationship with the world and everything in it, and is acutely aware of life's incredible absurdity.
My life is better for having read this. Thank you, Keiler. Your honest autobiographical experiences as a mom, a woman, a person, surviving in this crazy world, is something I didn't know I needed, but which has truly helped.
My life is better for having read this. Thank you, Keiler. Your honest autobiographical experiences as a mom, a woman, a person, surviving in this crazy world, is something I didn't know I needed, but which has truly helped.
December 2, 2023
The Joy of Quitting has neither. You would think that with a book titled “The Joy of Quitting” that there would a character you know, actually quitting something. Like a job, or a bad habit. Something. Or have more happiness in it. It’s a whole lot of her being in frustrating or disappointing situations. There is little to no cohesiveness between pages. Somebody threw a bunch of their comics into a book and called it a day.
Sorry but it’s just not worth it and I don’t understand the praise this is getting in the other comments.
Sorry but it’s just not worth it and I don’t understand the praise this is getting in the other comments.
November 21, 2022
I enjoyed this graphic novel, composed by a collection of autobiographical stories, even when sometimes these were just snaps of moments and insta-thoughts.
Keiler Roberts is not afraid to get metaphorically (and literally) naked in front of her readers, which makes for an entertaining, raw and open-hearted read.
I particularly enjoyed her reflections on death and illness (yeah, I know...) but I have to say this: kids are rarely as funny as their parents think they are, hence the four stars.
Keiler Roberts is not afraid to get metaphorically (and literally) naked in front of her readers, which makes for an entertaining, raw and open-hearted read.
I particularly enjoyed her reflections on death and illness (yeah, I know...) but I have to say this: kids are rarely as funny as their parents think they are, hence the four stars.
March 3, 2024
I love comics. I LOVE autobiographical comics. Especially ones exactly like this — it’s candid, relatable, and feels really authentic. Plenty of funny panels and also honest pieces regarding parenting, chronic illness, depression and bipolar disorder. This was a really fantastic slice of someone else’s life that I enjoyed a lot, and I look forward to reading a lot more from them soon!
January 17, 2023
Another Drawn and Quarterly release I’d missed from last year, more autobiographical comics from Keiler Roberts. Cackled out loud reading some of these. Roberts does a tremendous job conveying vulnerability with levity and this is the best collection of hers I’ve read so far.
January 22, 2023
I listened to Coltrane’s My Favorite Thngs from about page 130 on. This strip is authentic slice of life. Bare truths laid bare, and literally at times. I liked it despite expecting not to, as I did not like Creepy which I think is her latest. And although Keiler does not recommend the Coltrane, I dug that too.
October 13, 2023
Out of all the graphic novels I've read, this is probably my favorite. I just stumbled across it without realizing she also went to (and teaches at) at SAIC and lives in the same town as me. FATE <3
November 30, 2023
Me gusta mucho muchísimo Keiler Roberts. De este libro en concreto me ha gustado mucho que las historias son más largas.
November 9, 2022
I couldn't relate to some issues/topics, but when I could...damn, I felt seen.
November 27, 2022
The hilarious side of domestic life.
March 23, 2024
Great tale, hope to write a full review shortly.
November 11, 2023
You think you're reading anecdotes about your own family but then you realize you're reading a graphic medicine memoir, which is very typical of you. How could anyone think this is not funny?
December 5, 2024
These comics were great slice of life moments—funny, moving, very relatable. I loved them. But as a book, this is more a collection of random moments of a life. I like those generally, but some comics were one frame, some multiple pages, and no transitions or overarching story or narration to create a story, so it was sometimes disorienting because you didn’t know to keep the previous frame in mind to continue the narrative or not. So a great collection, but not a narrative graphic novel per se so I would have liked something to pull it all together and let me get to know her life journey a bit better. Still recommend to read it though.
January 10, 2023
My favorite comics. They make me laugh and cry.
November 3, 2023
La sonrisa congelada. Es inevitable que aparezca con cada nuevo episodio de la vida de Keiler Roberts, narrado con su trazo desgarbado (pero cada vez más cuidado), donde nos cuenta anécdotas del día a día en su hogar, conviviendo con su familia y su enfermedad. De hecho, en esta
El placer de la renuncia
, Roberts se retrotrae al origen de dos de los pilares de su obra autobiográfica: el diagnóstico de su esclerosis múltiple y el nacimiento de su (siempre hilarante sin esfuerzo alguno) hija Xia.
Tras Mi tabla de súplicas e Isolada, Alpha Decay nos trae apenas un año después de su publicación original esta nueva pieza del puzzle vital de Keiler Roberts, donde vuelven a entrecruzarse la ocurrencia y el sinsabor, el chiste malo y la punzada amarga, el humor absurdo y el absurdo existencial, la cínica de lengua afilada y la payasa triste. La mujer, la madre, la esposa, la enferma y la artista. Así, entre gags visuales de una sola viñeta y pequeñas historietas de hasta tres páginas, entre posturas de yoga que también pueden sentirse de lloro y lamento en posición fetal, Roberts vuelve a utilizar el cómic como mecanismo de supervivencia y gestión de las emociones, similar al "diario de agradecimientos imaginarios" que guarda en el baño. Y se nota que esta es su obra más reciente porque, aunque hay viñetas más aparentemente desganadas, otras trabajan la precisión del detalle, nutriendo de contrastes la obra y transmitiendo a través del trazo las mismas sensaciones que pretende trasladarnos con su guion (no hay más que ver al adorable "Mateo 2" apoyado en su carrito de la compra).
Agridulce, pues, la nueva entrega de la autobiografía continua de Keiler Roberts, como agridulce es su vida, como lo es la vida en general, salpimentada de momentos estúpidos, meteduras de pata, gestos cariñosos, contemplación vacía (y amarga)... Porque, tal y como apunta una conversación hacia el final de El placer de la renuncia , aunque la verdad sea que al menos hoy no has llorado, aún estás a tiempo.
Tras Mi tabla de súplicas e Isolada, Alpha Decay nos trae apenas un año después de su publicación original esta nueva pieza del puzzle vital de Keiler Roberts, donde vuelven a entrecruzarse la ocurrencia y el sinsabor, el chiste malo y la punzada amarga, el humor absurdo y el absurdo existencial, la cínica de lengua afilada y la payasa triste. La mujer, la madre, la esposa, la enferma y la artista. Así, entre gags visuales de una sola viñeta y pequeñas historietas de hasta tres páginas, entre posturas de yoga que también pueden sentirse de lloro y lamento en posición fetal, Roberts vuelve a utilizar el cómic como mecanismo de supervivencia y gestión de las emociones, similar al "diario de agradecimientos imaginarios" que guarda en el baño. Y se nota que esta es su obra más reciente porque, aunque hay viñetas más aparentemente desganadas, otras trabajan la precisión del detalle, nutriendo de contrastes la obra y transmitiendo a través del trazo las mismas sensaciones que pretende trasladarnos con su guion (no hay más que ver al adorable "Mateo 2" apoyado en su carrito de la compra).
Agridulce, pues, la nueva entrega de la autobiografía continua de Keiler Roberts, como agridulce es su vida, como lo es la vida en general, salpimentada de momentos estúpidos, meteduras de pata, gestos cariñosos, contemplación vacía (y amarga)... Porque, tal y como apunta una conversación hacia el final de El placer de la renuncia , aunque la verdad sea que al menos hoy no has llorado, aún estás a tiempo.
February 26, 2023
Keiler Roberts’ cartoons on young motherhood serve as a counterpart to another cartoonist from Drawn & Quarterly, Guy Delisle’s Neglectful Parenting series: domestic comedy regarding chores, raising a child (two for Delisle), and dealing with a spouse and (for Roberts) one’s own parents. I suppose the cartoonist spirit hovering over both Robert and Delisle is Bil Keene’s “Family Circus,” but the death of newspaper comics and the need to appeal daily to the mawkish, cutesy sentimentality demanded by a mass audience, has given cartoonists room to deal more honestly with domestic perils and frustrations—and, with Roberts, medications for parental emotional health, visits to the gynecologist, and other intimate matters. Roberts is also able to include innocent scenes of nudity (her own or her child’s), mostly in bathrooms. The humor is typically droll, as in this example, whose dialogue I quote:
Amie came to visit Chicago and stayed at our house for the first night we were away. I got to see her just long enough to take a walk.
[Keiler:] You have to take the balloons home with you. They’ll be deflated by the time we get back.
[Amie:] I will definitely not do that.
[Keiler:] Why not? Your kids would be so happy.
[Amie:] I hate balloons. I hate them bouncing around and they last forever.
[Keiler:] Yeah, I hate them too.
Will you take some mangos?
[Amie:] Yes.
Think of The Joy of Quitting, then, as a mango.
For more of my reviews, please seehttps://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
Amie came to visit Chicago and stayed at our house for the first night we were away. I got to see her just long enough to take a walk.
[Keiler:] You have to take the balloons home with you. They’ll be deflated by the time we get back.
[Amie:] I will definitely not do that.
[Keiler:] Why not? Your kids would be so happy.
[Amie:] I hate balloons. I hate them bouncing around and they last forever.
[Keiler:] Yeah, I hate them too.
Will you take some mangos?
[Amie:] Yes.
Think of The Joy of Quitting, then, as a mango.
For more of my reviews, please seehttps://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
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November 29, 2022Love love love Roberts' biting, mundane, laugh-out-loud, slice-of-life comics. Some of these are collected from previous publications, so they weren't all brand new to me. But it's nice to have them all gathered in such a lovely book.
December 24, 2022
Needed a palate cleanser after some heavy historical fiction and this was perfect. I’ve never read Keller Roberts before but I was clearly missing out. Such perfect little vignettes of motherhood, mental & physical illness, family, creativity…
November 11, 2022
An incredibly fun graphic anthology. I loved this emotional and sharp collection of autobio comics.
March 13, 2023
I was a little slow to warm to this but then I couldn't put it down. Roberts' humor is very deadpan, and sometimes that left certain comics feeling a little unfinished or hanging. There are a lot of funny and poignant moments here, and some incredibly vulnerable ones. There were some things that made me feel very seen (like Roberts, I too am paranoid about illness and can also be a jerk to my partner about it; she also has the best description I've seen of that nostalgic/restless/need-to-create energy that is not actually conducive to creating, which I experience often), and I suspect my discomfort in some areas was about me not wanting to feel/be similar to Roberts in certain ways. (And I think in many ways I am quite different from her, but I always have to wonder if maybe I really do have a particular trait and just don't want to acknowledge it.) I got a sliiiiight "Mommy has to day drink to tolerate you" vibe from some of the parenting pieces, and I didn't care for that (yes, parenting is hard work but I feel like some of the comics were going beyond that and into a darker place that I personally haven't experienced and think that we should acknowledge but not glorify), but overall the presence of her daughter is charming and those comics seem rendered lovingly.
June 18, 2023
This graphic novel is like being in someone's head as their thoughts randomly exist. Keiler Roberts writes about the most mundane, odd, everyday things some of which I'd rather not read about. But it's different. The chaotic order (no order) that it's written in was hard for me to make sense of....which may be the point the author's trying to make. I didn't like the non-flow of the story. I give her credit for being different but that doesn't mean I liked it. There was a lot of depression, angst, mood swings, almost abuse to her spouse and husband.....well more like disregard or aloofness than abuse....but I didn't like the way she treated them. I guess to some this might represent life but for me it doesn't. Troubles, worries, anxiety were so prevalent that it wore me out reading it. It was a quick read. I'm not sorry I read it but I could've found a better way to spend that time.
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