Friends of the Library SPOTLIGHT 7
Finely tooned
daughter — it’s in these characters that so many readers see themselves. One cartoon from “Theories of Everything,” sums them up best. Shown sitting side by side on a couch, Dad is lamenting how “Everything has gone downhill since 1964.” Consumed, as usual, by misplaced guilt, Mom frets that “Everything is my fault.” Clairvoyantly, Daughter glares at Mom and scowls “Everything IS your fault,” while preteen Son surmises, “Everything would be fine if I had a dirt bike.” Chast’s ability to pinpoint our collective anxieties may be rooted in her childhood as illustrated in another of her best-known cartoons. In it, she portrays herself at age 9, nose firmly planted in “The Big By AMY HIESTAND Book of Horrible Rare Diseases” with similarly titled volumes strewn Connections Staff Writer about her bed. A born worrier, she’s been fascinated by all things dark and creepy as far back as she can remember. or someone who says she has a hard time paying attention, Perhaps it was this trait that drew Chast to the ghoulish characters Roz Chast doesn’t seem to miss a thing. Little, if anything, of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams, whose influence remains about human nature has gone unnoticed by the cartoonist in her work today. Having been deposited in the browsing library who has been holding a mirror up to readers of The New at Cornell University while her parents, both educators, attended a Yorker for 33 years. lecture, the 9-year-old Chast discovered a book of his cartoons. “I Through snapshots of everyday existence, Chast may force us to thought they were so funny,” she says. “Maybe because they were so see what we look like through the eyes of a spouse, parent, child or subversive and allowed me to imagine stepping outco-worker. But in the process we get to laugh at ourside of being the good girl that I always was.” selves – and at life. As an only child of older parents, Chast spent a As the featured speaker at this year’s Friends of the fair amount of time in libraries apart from the one at Princeton Public Library benefit, Chast is likely to talk Cornell where she pored over Addams’s work. “I alabout some of the work that appears in “Theories of ways read and discovered lots of things through readEverything: Selected, Collected and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978-2006,” a collection of her favorite caring,” she said. “We would go to the main Brooklyn toons. Just don’t expect her to share how she does it. Public Library and also to our neighborhood library.” “I’m really not very analytical about it,” she said Chast continued the tradition of visiting the library recently from her home in Ridgefield, Conn. “I just while raising her own children, and has never stopped do what I think is funny.” going to “the great library we have here in Ridgefield.” Over the years, what Chast thinks is funny has As for e-readers, “I had my Kindle,” Chast said. made it onto the pages of The New Yorker more than “I thought I’d use it more, but I ended up giving it to 1,000 times including several covers. Her cartoons someone. Maybe because I’m on my computer have also been published in other magazines includall day, I don’t know, I just like books. I like to flip ing Scientific American, the Harvard Business Review back pages.” A self-portrait of New Yorker cartoonist and Redbook. Chast says she’s looking forward to her appearance Roz Chast, who appears at the benefit of the Chast uses drawings of everything from tombas part of the annual Friends benefit in October and Friends of the Library on Oct. 14. stones to trains to barnyard animals to convey her was thrilled to hear she’d be introduced by her old keen, if quirky, observations and exquisitely sarcastic friend and fellow New Yorker cartoonist Henry Martin. “Oh, I adore wit. But it’s the people in her cartoons who are instantly recognizable Henry Martin,” she said “He’s so great — he’s just the best.” to the many admirers of her work. Roz Chast I Friends of the Library Benefit I Oct. 14, 6 p.m. I Nassau Presbyterian Including a family with an identical make-up to her own — she Church I $200-$500 includes post-talk dinner in the library I For more informaand her husband humor writer Bill Franzen raised a son and a tion, call 609.924.9529, ext. 280
Cartoonist Roz Chast to draw on her acerbic wit as Friends Benefit speaker
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OCTOBER 21-23, 2011 Friday, Oct. 21 10 a.m.– Noon Preview Sale ($10 admission; Friends admitted free) Numbered tickets for sale at 9 a.m. No admission fee after Preview Sale Noon–5:30 p.m. Regular Sale Saturday, Oct. 22 9 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Regular Sale Sunday , Oct. 23 1–5:30 p.m. Half Price Sale 3–5:30 p.m. Bag Sale in the Tent on Hinds Plaza (Fill a bag for $5)