We all have fears, neuroses and pet peeves. And there's no one else on earth who can better capture and articulate such absurdities of the human psyche than New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. In What I Hate: From A to Z, Chast, a self-proclaimed "anxious person," brings her own special brand of wry humor and artistic style to a clever, alphabetized catalogue of her favorite personal anxieties and concerns. Chast utilizes all 26 letters of the alphabet, and offers runners-up and understudies at the end of the book, striking a perfect balance between the literary and the visual. Each full-page cartoon entry, and brief passage of accompanying text, resonates with insight and wit about the human condition. Rendered via Chast's cerebral point of view, common fears--elevators, getting lost, heights, nightmares, and waterbugs (to name just a few)--are cast in a chilling new light, while her treatment of more eccentric, highly specialized concerns--alien abduction, carnival ride maintenance, Jello, Ouija boards, premature burial, undertow and the color yellow--is full of irony as well as dark, intellectual depth.
Chast is a meticulous illustrator, yet a charming simplicity reigns as the hallmark of her work. The unique, sketchy quality of her art is what makes it so appealing to a wide, crossover audience, but the content of these cartoons can evoke deeper thoughts even while inspiring the reader to laugh out loud. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines