I’ve worn the same pair of sweatpants for fourteen months. I’ve binge watched, binge eaten, binge shopped, binge prayed. I’ve Zoomed. Streamed. Screamed. Googled how to get hot fudge out of a duvet cover. Googled how to chop my insulting blue jeans into face masks. Googled how to permanently delete my Google search history. I’ve meditated, looked within and asked the big questions: “If no one’s allowed in my house for months, what’s the point of vacuuming?”
Cathy Guisewite is the creator of the “Cathy” comic strip. She wasn’t planning to draw again when the strip ended…but she also wasn’t planning on a global pandemic. Her new book, Scenes from Isolation, was created when Cathy lifted her head from the ice cream carton during pandemic lockdown long enough to start dumping some of her angst on paper.
Cathy found her way into the hearts of readers more than forty years ago, and in one way or another, has been there ever since. Her deeply relatable look at the challenges of womanhood in a changing world became a touchstone for women everywhere, winning her praise, awards and the high honor of having her work displayed on the fronts of refrigerators across the land, right next to the food.
Her 2019 book of essays, Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault, is a book of essays about the “grown-up” years — aging children, aging parents, aging self and the glorious freedom to liberate ourselves from all those things which are not our fault.
Scenes from Isolation continues Cathy’s grand tradition of commiseration — reading like a little diary of what we’ve all been through. Reassuring us that no matter how deep the dive into the bowl of comfort mashed potatoes, we’re never alone.
“Laughter is the best proof of freedom, and Cathy has written a book that will help keep us free to the very end.”
