Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom Is Dead - by Angela Nissel (Paperback)

About the Book

"Angela Nissel, who has written and produced such smash television series as The Other Black Girl, Scrubs, and Mixed-ish, charts her unexpected role as her terminally ill mother's caretaker in this funny, moving, and unforgettable memoir"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Television writer, producer, and bestselling author of the acclaimed The Broke Diaries and Mixed charts her unexpected role as her terminally ill mother's caretaker in this funny, moving, and unforgettable memoir.

Angela Nissel always wanted her mother's approval. But two defining events created a barrier between them: renouncing Christianity and being admitted to a psychiatric ward-- events that mirrored failed parenting to her mother.

Beating her depression, Angela moved to Los Angeles where she quickly achieved success as a television writer but soon after found herself dead broke and enduring a painful divorce. It was at this low point that she received heartbreaking news: her mother had cancer. Angela moves her mother to Los Angeles where she attempts to hide foreclosure notices and her live-in boyfriend while also trying to save her mother's life with everything from crystals to celebrity doctors. Still, her mother succumbs to her cancer.

In this poignant and hilarious memoir, Angela chronicles her odyssey as she tries to remain "strong" like her mother in the face of grief. Delightfully self-deprecating, unsparing in its honesty, yet filled with wacky humor and joy, Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead, is an unforgettable portrait of love, yearning, loss, and resilience that reveals the indelible power of introspection to save our lives.

Review Quotes

"Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead is an extraordinarily profound portrait of love, loss, and grief that everyone needs to read. Angela Nissel chronicles her difficult journey of caring for and eventually losing a parent to cancer with a candor that made me cry and an observational wit that left me in stitches. This is a heartfelt love letter not just to Nissel's mother, but to a generation of hardworking black women who spent their lives playing by the rules without ever getting to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor. And it's a perennial reminder to laugh and love on one another while we still can." --Zakiya Dalila Harris, bestselling author of The Other Black Girl
"Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead signals the triumphant return of one of our most talented memoirists. Nobody prepared us to care for aging or ill parents, but Angela gives us extraordinary insight into her own journey rooted in a daughter's unconditional love for her mother. And like she does with everything else, her vulnerability in these pages is shared with remarkable humor and heart." --Angela Rye, attorney and co-host of the award-winning Native Land Pod
"I confess: I was not prepared for the love, for the pain, for the anger, for the sorrow, for the sheer vivacious and unsparing (of anyone, herself very much included) honesty. This memoir is about life, holding on to it and letting go of it, and I was bowled over by the keen specificity of Nissel's narrative--she's a marvelously detailed painter of word portraits--and, by adroit extension, her ability to evoke the universal wonder of having a mother and of surviving one. And yes, if you're wondering: It's also, at times, extremely funny, sometimes full-out hilariously, sometimes full-out gut-punchingly." - Benjamin Dreyer, author of the New York Times bestseller Dreyer's English