The Party, After You Left

by Roz Chast

Readers can't get enough of Roz Chast. Now the classic collection The Party, After You Left is back in print. Together, these cartoons, which originally appeared in The New Yorker, Scientific American, Redbook, and other publications, constitute a spot-on record of our increasingly absurd existence. The book is a powerful reminder of how lucky we are to have Roz Chast among us to tackle some of the toughest themes of the times with uproarious humor: genetically altered mice, birthday parties from hell, and comfort drinks in the age of insecurity.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Cartoon, Art

96 pages, Hardcover

First published April 24, 2004

About the author

Rosalind "Roz" Chast is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker. She grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, the only child of an assistant principal and a high school teacher. Her earliest cartoons were published in Christopher Street and The Village Voice. In 1978 The New Yorker accepted one of her cartoons and has since published more than 800. She also publishes cartoons in Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review.

Chast is a graduate of Midwood High School in Brooklyn. She first attended Kirkland College (which later merged with Hamilton College) and then studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and received a BFA in painting in 1977. She also holds honorary doctorates from Pratt Institute and Dartmouth College, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is represented by the Danese/Corey gallery in Chelsea, New York City.

Reviews

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I literally laughed out loud. Here are some of the niche magazines Chast thought up and placed in an illustration of a newsstand back in 1999:

FUSSY LITTLE MAN
STEVEDORE QUARTERLY
ELDERLY ABDUCTEE
HORSY GIRL
PARTLY TRUE CONFESSIONS
NEW YORK PROCRASTINATOR
SCRAWNY & BALD
SCOFFLAW! (the cover shows a man littering)
RUBBER BAND ENTHUSIAST
READER'S DIGEST DIGEST ("Only Three Pages Long!")
HOME DENTIST
NEWSPAPER HOARDER

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny. Laugh out loud funny. I liked reading this smaller book better than "Theories of Everything". It was published in 2004, so the comics are more recent than in the larger collection. Would make a good gift...and then, as soon as I think this, I create my own comic response: "Writer Gives Non-Writer Friend A Book" With lots of little bubble thoughts of responses: I already have too many books. I could get this from the library. Where am I going to put this? All those Sunday open houses I go to never have books, just one on the coffee table and one cookbook in the kitchen. If I got rid or everything I own, maybe my house would look as good as those. Okay, so not everything. I could start with getting rid of the pile of New Yorkers on the floor.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some were funny, some weren't. That's cartoon humor for you. My favorites:

Trial Balloons in Apartment 3-B (Mom: "Lentils - a tasty, inexpensive alternative to meat.")

Hoax Ethnic Food food cart ("New York's Only Kwzntueaaian Cuisine")

Schadenfruede Monthly magazine cover ("Obnoxious Heiress's Cosmetic Surgery Goes Horribly Wrong! Scads of gruesome pictures, pages 11-15")

The NRA's Written Test for a Gun License ("I'm all for gun safety, but _____________________________ (use reverse side if necessary)" )

The Big Book of Parent-Child Fights (Chapter 1, Food Arguments - page 1. Chapter 2, Bedtime Feuds - page 832.)

Sudden Genius catalog ("#3188: Russian Headbox. Russian mystics have long known that putting one's head in a box concentrates the cranial aura. Easy to use, safe, 100% effective. $124.99")

The Daily Bugle newspaper (Headlines: "$165 Billion!!! Huge Amount of Money! No Doubt About It!" "$80 Billion. Not As Impressive As It Once Was." "$5 Billion. *Yawn*" "$400 Million. So What?" "$100 Million. Nobody Cares.")

Woodwork Clothes catalog. ("#638: Nothing-Special Skirt. How many times have you wanted to just disappear completely? Order your skirt in Ignore, Vague, and Goodbye.")

[Trin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a star off, rather unfairly, because I think everything in here is reprinted in the much more comprehensive Theories of Everything. (This collection predates that one.) Theories is the ultimate Chast compendium, and a highly, HIGHLY recommend it, but all of her smaller works are great, too.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roz Chast's cartoons are something of an acquired taste. They're actually more firmly grounded in reality than they may appear at first glance. She combines observational humor with a touch of the surreal and a finely tuned sense of the absurd to create a style that is uniquely her own. I love her work, and am always happy to read it.

[Davie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four stars for "One morning, while getting dressed", "Gifts from the house of low goals", "Schadenfraude Monthly", "New Year's Resolutions in the Animal Kingdom", "$165 Billion!!!' and more. Everything else two or three stars.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped me survive three marriages [not counting innumerable 'girlfriends'], four careers [not counting innumerable 'jobs'], and five college crises [not counting innumerable 'classes' and 'tests'].

Not.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Roz Chast with an unnerving intensity that, even so, is completely warranted.

[Caro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may have read this before, but it was still hilarious. Everyone who was here for Christmas picked it up at some point and had to read aloud to the rest of us. I heart Roz Chast.

[Alex Andrasik · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can tell these cartoons date mainly from the 90s. I have no compunction about judging work despite their being "from another time;" people can and should be able to identify what's right, just and in good taste no matter what era they're struggling through - it's not my fault if some creators have a harder time of that, or some eras make it harder than others, which I would acknowledge the feel-good, can't we all just get along 90s definitely did.

The 90s of it all is no excuse for the fact that, for one thing, I'm fairly certain that zero people of color appear in any of these cartoons. Oh, wait, there may have been one little girl with brownish-tinged skin in one school-themed cartoon. Other than that, Chast seems to see New York City as the whitest city on Earth, whether she's depicting crowded streets, fancy parties, or anything else. That doesn't stop her from making unbecoming jokes about non-WASPy people; golly, isn't it funny how service workers seem to have all those consonants in their names! And immigrants' food, incomprehensible, amirite?

These cartoons are also generally terrible about women and their views of themselves. There's a case to be made that the cartoons dealing with women's bodies and self-perceptions are satirizing those views, but they don't do much to dig into and subvert them; we're left with the impression that, yes, your thighs should be skinnier, and, yes, your internal monologue is kind of crazy and your fault.

The cynicism inherent in some of these views isn't given room for interrogation, either. The older generation is terrible, the younger generation is terrible, the current generation is terrible, everyone is terrible.

One cartoon struck me particularly as representing part of the march from old world natural sustainability to modern excess and disconnection: the woman in it berates her parents for wanting to keep and reuse things, for wanting to get a purse repaired at a local neighborhood business rather than buy something new at a department store. The mother's final, line expressing communal values and mutuality - "Why should I give Macy's my business? They don't know me or your father" - is treated as the punchline. Heaven forbid we should consume less, reuse more, and prioritize relationships with people over corporations!

I hope and have reason to believe that Chast's style and themes evolved beyond these relatively early, single-panel cartoons, especially in more personal works like "Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant"?

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Grade = 85% - B

Published 2004.

I found this a few days ago at a local thrift shop and knew the second I saw it that it was by a cartoonist from the New Yorker magazine with whom I am familiar.

It was very enjoyable. I kept picking it up with the thought of reading only a few pages at a time, but I just kept on going, and it was soon finished.

[Lynn]

Read 8/20/20.

[Christopher McQuain · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Ashwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Crossposted from my blog: https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07...)

Roz Chast is my #1 favorite among the cartoonists whose works appear regularly in The New Yorker. (Don’t you think the cartoons are the reason to flip through a New Yorker?) I have always found her cartoons to be incredibly funny and felt that they depicted the craziness of modern urban life as no other. She focuses purely on the minutiae of domestic life that everyone experiences, but seldom gives a second thought. It helps that I like her simple drawing and coloring style too. Besides The New Yorker, she also draws about the absurdity of modern technology in other media. The Party, After You Left is one of her recent compilations of such cartoons. The selected cartoons each take a while to see and savor, making this a great choice to slowly flip through on a weekend afternoon or as a coffee table book. Lots of snickering and belly laughs guaranteed! :-)

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laugh just thinking about this book; Roz Chast offers up some of the most transparent human insecurities available on the planet. The title refers to that feeling of being at a party and wanting to leave, but simultaneously feeling reluctant to leave because something really cool might happen after you've gone. If you can, zoom in on the cover and read the conversation people at the party are having, now that you've left. The best wine is being served. A super famous movie star shows up. The juiciest gossip is being tossed around--and even Jesus and Buddha walk in! See? You should never have left! "The Party After You Left" is a grand soiree indeed, along with this book of page after page of amusement.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite Roz Chast collections, although I have to admit it's a very wide-ranging mix of her work. It includes some of my favorite comics and drawings, including some great New Yorker covers. I still laugh when I study the cover with the newsstand with improbable magazine covers like "Sine and Cosine" and "Fussy Little Man"! But some of the comics that focus on neurotic New Yorkers themselves make me cringe more than laugh.

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mostly humorous collection of one-page comics. I especially enjoyed the “Useful Degrees Comic” (Bachelor of Grocery Arts) and “The NRA’s Written Test” (People who don’t like guns are _____ and ought to be ______.)

However, it’s easy to tell these comics mainly appeared in mainstream publications such as Redbook. Most of them are just a little too general and “safe” for my tastes.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ros Chast has cornered the market on cartoons about weirdly anxious and socially awkward people. There are some gems her, but I don't think it's her best work. I was disappointed that the cartoons are reproduced at about 75 or 80% of their original size. It was hard for me to read a lot of the print on some of the darker cartoons.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm pretty split on Roz Chast. Her longer comics I usually skip because I find them so boring and not funny, but her shorter stuff I like a lot! Actually, more than anything else I love the spine of the book. It's lovely.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

we got this book through a visiting artist program. at first i thought some of the cartoons were kind of dumb but then as i kept reading, there were some that were actually quite funny. probably only high school.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Roz Chast.
My favorites are the Mixed Marriage cartoons.
I love it when one half of the couple loses it...usually the female and she reminds me of George Castanzas mom but with a rougher voice.

[Ellen]

A collection of comics previously seen in New Yorker, Scientific American, etc. More of Chast's handy guides for navigating complex (and not so) modern situations and charts for easy recognition of what's what. The Dream Remote, Seasonal Affective Disorder, The Universe In A Grain of Sand

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both my son & I laughed over this book. I was familiar with Chast from the New Yorker and her fabulous book, "Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant" which I have foisted on many people.

Lots of fun, laughs, and sarcastic wit. Enjoy!

[Amar Pai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roz Chast is the only funny New Yorker cartoonist. Her drawing style in particular always makes me laugh.

[Mily · Rating 5 out of 5]

hilarious.
perfect.
Roz Chast.

[Ellen Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite cartoonist from the new yorker

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love her off-the-wall humor; amusing mix of the mundane and neurotic.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Roz Chast.

[Joey Alison Sayers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roz Chast is great!

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

she is hilarious. she could illustrate rae armantrout