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 Roz Chast is in the news because she is releasing a book about her dreams; this led me to explore "What I Hate" and "The Party, After You Left."


"What I Hate" won't become immortal; Chast is just clearing her throat here. (I do like her rant about the color yellow. "It's the worst of the primary colors; it's often either sickly or aggressively cheery. There are certain pale, pale variants that I can tolerate--but not many.")

The stronger book is "The Party, After You Left." Here, Chast recites the fake names of bots that send her "spam" solicitation emails. "Martin Norblast." "Trudi LaRue." "Sidy Tarroae." Chast invents a personality and backstory for each name. Also, Chast imagines one block in NYC--a series of storefronts offering "buttons," "ice skating supplies," "ventriloquism school," "snaps 'n' more." (That's actually New York; the cartoon is somehow more truthful than many, many realist photographs of New York.)

Above all, I love the series entitled "Mixed Marriage," in which two strong personalities attempt to share one home. Like many other Americans, I feel that Chast has direct access to the contents of my own heart. In one cartoon, Spouse A complains about a new bowl of grapes: "They're too bursty. The skin-to-guts ratio is off. I can just see the farmer thinking, I'LL GROW A GRAPE AS LARGE AS AN APPLE....and this saddens me...."

Spouse B could say, "You're so nutty, and it's charming!" But Spouse B hasn't slept well; perhaps his toddler is coping with new molars. So Spouse B extends his claws: "The grapes are too large? That right there makes me doubt EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER SAID."

And we're off to the races. It's a work of art.







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