Review by Booklist Review
New Yorker cartoonist Chast offers up an alphabet soup of anxieties from which she claims to suffer and which readers whether they share them or not will find deliciously fraught with good-natured laughs. Getting Lost, for instance, is depicted by a map of Disturboville, North Kafka, and Psycho Corners, through which pass the Road to Nowhere and Highway of No Hope. For anyone with this particular affliction, this map is accurate indeed! Other anxieties include Doctors, Spontaneous Human Combustion, and the finality that the letter Z itself connotes. Each page spread includes a pithy paragraph about the problem in question, facing an iconically loopy and deviously playful cartoon in which Chast explores the quirky possibilities just waiting to make her crazy. In spite of its alphabetical structure and brevity, this is no book for small children, who would no doubt come away afflicted with their own host of premature anxieties. Older teens and adults, however, will delight in Chast's arch humor, and take comfort in discovering that anxieties can be shown the light of day and laughter.--Goldsmith, Francisca Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The remarkably straightforward title tells the reader exactly what to expect: 26 cartoons (plus a couple of bonuses), each accompanied by a short paragraph of the author's musings on what's illustrated. Chast's nervous cross-hatching and wiggly, double-penned lines are perfect for this catalogue of urban anxiety. Subjects range from the understandable (doctors, getting lost, going blind) or the commonplace (flying, heights, nightmares) to the bizarre, such as when she calls balloons "imminent explosions" or ponders spontaneous human combustion. Her memory of trying to make Jell-O 1-2-3 is both nostalgic and immensely creepy. Readers will find it most amusingly shocking to run across a worry they thought was uniquely theirs-realizing that someone else has considered all the ways you could die at a carnival is perversely comforting. The cartoons range from sequential, with four subpanels, to simple, stark images, such as a child being abducted by a kite. Others are packed with details of fearful faces or overwhelm the image with text; Chast uses whatever works best for the concept. With its variety of topics, this slim hardcover makes for an entertaining, rewarding flip-through. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In this neurotic spin on the classic alphabet book, longtime New Yorker staff cartoonist Chast (Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected, Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978-2006) shares a few of her least favorite things, with each letter suggesting a horror that you may never have even considered worrying about before: G for general anesthesia, K for kites, S for spontaneous human combustion, V for vision loss. As Chast writes in her introduction, this book "certainly won't take away any of your anxieties. If anything, it might add to them." Verdict While not all of the entries will resonate with everyone (who's afraid of Jell-O 1-2-3?), Chast's funny, fuzzy-lined drawings make even the most mundane object send chills of unease down your spine. Avoiding any truly scary subject matter, this spoof is suitable for readers of all ages, though hypochondriacs and fans of Chast's twisted sense of humor will especially rejoice.-Ingrid Bohnenkamp, Portland P.L., ME (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
BelovedNew Yorkercartoonist shares an alphabetized listing of life's little irritants.Veteran illustrator and humorist Chast (Too Busy Marco, 2010, etc.) has crafted a colorful career from parodying unsavory situations and maladies alongside the happenstances of the human condition. To truly enjoy her nimble pen and watercolor sketches, readers must be willing to laugh at their own harmless foibles. In the charming introduction, the author admits to being a life-long "anxious person," a chronic insomniac who is "genetically inclined to worry," and she brilliantly plays this personal shortcoming to maximum comical effect with the jagged line-drawing style and ironical wit that have become her trademarks. From the unsettling possibility of waking up during general anesthesia to the offbeat catastrophes of "Jell-O 1-2-3" and spontaneous human combustion, the author presents an A-to-Z catalog of distressing concerns and her unique take on "what might funny about them." Chast prefaces each pictorial with a short, personal preamble describing what it is about each subject that has become so bothersome for the apprehensive author. She lightheartedly exposes the inconvenient nuisance of nightmares and beach undertows, the unknown consequences of Ouija boards and the wincing "imminent explosion" of annoying balloons. Chast doesn't have much use for assumptive doctors, quicksand or carnivals, either (they're "particularly awful at night"). Her takes on vision loss ("the girl who sat too close to the TV"), "mysterious" dental tools and the dark sides of the color yellow are sure to elicit knowing chuckles. With realistic, tongue-in-cheek foresight, the author spotlights a selection of the most commonplace, phobia-inducing situations (elevators, air travel, heights, etc.) and defuses them with brilliantly dry, flippant humor.A hilarious, collectively appealing index of words and pictures drawn with wry exuberance and a head-nodding relevancy.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
