What do you think?
Rate this book
Scenes from Isolation
Isolation commiserations from the creator of the iconic “Cathy” comic strip, Cathy Guisewite!
We’re all in this together…but it helps to see someone else with her face planted in the bowl of mashed potatoes. In the same way that Cathy was a relatable friend during the comic strip years, she’s returned to offer some happy relief, support, and a much-needed AACK from isolation.
This little book is a compassionate companion for right now and, long after the pandemic is over, will be a treasured scrapbook of what we survived—the fear of droplets, the work-from-refrigerator wear, the revenge retail therapy of online shopping, the frustration of trying to teach Grandma to Zoom from 3,000 miles away, the little shreds of hope mixed in with the sourdough bread dough.
From the
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 “If no one’s allowed in my house for months, what’s the point of vacuuming?”
We’re all in this together…but it helps to see someone else with her face planted in the bowl of mashed potatoes. In the same way that Cathy was a relatable friend during the comic strip years, she’s returned to offer some happy relief, support, and a much-needed AACK from isolation.
This little book is a compassionate companion for right now and, long after the pandemic is over, will be a treasured scrapbook of what we survived—the fear of droplets, the work-from-refrigerator wear, the revenge retail therapy of online shopping, the frustration of trying to teach Grandma to Zoom from 3,000 miles away, the little shreds of hope mixed in with the sourdough bread dough.
From the
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 “If no one’s allowed in my house for months, what’s the point of vacuuming?”
160 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2021
6 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Guisewite
107 books151 followersCathy Lee Guisewite is the cartoonist who created the comic strip Cathy in 1976. Her main cartoon character (Cathy) is a career woman faced with the issues and challenges of work, relationships, her mother and food, or as Guisewite herself put it in one of her strips, "The four basic guilt groups."
Guisewite was born in Dayton, Ohio and grew up in Midland, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Guisewite received her bachelor's degree in English in 1972. She also holds seven honorary degrees.
In 1993, Guisewite received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society. In 1987, she received an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy, which aired on CBS. Guisewite was a frequent guest in the latter years of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Guisewite and her husband Chris Wilkinson reside in Los Angeles. She has a daughter and a stepson.
Guisewite was born in Dayton, Ohio and grew up in Midland, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Guisewite received her bachelor's degree in English in 1972. She also holds seven honorary degrees.
In 1993, Guisewite received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society. In 1987, she received an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy, which aired on CBS. Guisewite was a frequent guest in the latter years of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Guisewite and her husband Chris Wilkinson reside in Los Angeles. She has a daughter and a stepson.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
December 16, 2021
look, i never expected i'd ever be reading a Cathy book, either. when i was a little kid hunched over the sunday funnies eating my smurfberry crunch, i'd read the strip because it was there, and i'm a diehard completist; cover-to-covering the comics sections of the TWO papers we got at the home, but the whole "ack, weight gain" and "ack, relationship woes!" content-cycle didn't really speak to my personal life experience at the time, so it was very much a scan-and-move-on kinda thing.
but in 2020, connor got stuck back in his missouri hometown during lockdown, and started reading his local paper's comics pages again, and—becoming even more connor-y in the cabin fever of it all, got a little obsessed with chronicling how various comics were addressing (or not addressing) covid.
(as they say, thread)
somehow he stumbled upon cathy guisewite's insta, discovering that not only had she adapted her daily strip into a series of single-panel comics that were actually reflecting what was happening in the world, but that they were funny and comforting and relatable.
by the time the comics were published in book-form, he was back here where he belongs and he had me pick up a copy for him. skeptical, but curious as a kitten, i read it myself before handing it over, and i gotta admit—this is some highly relatable content and apparently, the pandemic has made me more Cathy-like than i ever dreamed i would be back in the days of colorful sugarmilk-and-honey, particularly in the realms of covid-era attention span:
lofty ambitions vs. executable reality:
and comfort/anxiety eating:
i think we're all a little bit cathy now, but here's a test to see.* have u had this reaction to any media in the past two years?
i sure have.
anyway, i hope you have enjoyed this story of me and Cathy 2021—a tale of growth and transformation.
* this test will not work on "covid is a hoax"-ers, or unvaccinated sociopaths who care more about small inconveniences to daily life than not killing someone's grandma. y'all motherfuckers don't deserve Cathy. <-- welcome to a sentence i never thought i'd type.
come to my blog!
November 17, 2021
Cathy Guisewite comes out of retirement and brings her Cathy Andrews comic strip character with her to reflect on life in lockdown for an affluent White woman during the COVID-19 pandemic. I haven't read a Cathy strip in years, but quickly fell back into the rhythm of Guisewite's gentle "Ack!" humor about hair, eating, and shopping. It ain't deep, but it's comfortable.
Continuity buffs may worry about the utter absence of husband Irving Hillman and the daughter they were expecting in the final strip of the original series in 2010.
Continuity buffs may worry about the utter absence of husband Irving Hillman and the daughter they were expecting in the final strip of the original series in 2010.
May 10, 2022
With the pandemic starting to ease up (or at least pandemic related restrictions finally easing up), it was interesting and even therapeutic to read this and remember and laugh at what we all had to do to make it through.
Cartoonist, Cathy Guisewite, resurrected her Cathy comic for the pandemic online and for free (!) to bring some much needed joy and levity to dire times. Although, I'm not the target audience for some of these strips, I still appreciated the humour. But it was surprising how many of her jokes I could relate to. Guisewite really captured some of the insanity around the pandemic and our equally crazy coping mechanisms. It's also a record (in humour form) of a bizarre and unique period of time for us all.
I have tremendous respect for Guisewite as a trail-blazing female cartoonist (not only were there not many female lead comics back when the comic started in the 70s but there were even fewer that dealt so prominently with women's experiences). These free gifts she gave us all during some dark times has made me have even more respect for her!
Cartoonist, Cathy Guisewite, resurrected her Cathy comic for the pandemic online and for free (!) to bring some much needed joy and levity to dire times. Although, I'm not the target audience for some of these strips, I still appreciated the humour. But it was surprising how many of her jokes I could relate to. Guisewite really captured some of the insanity around the pandemic and our equally crazy coping mechanisms. It's also a record (in humour form) of a bizarre and unique period of time for us all.
I have tremendous respect for Guisewite as a trail-blazing female cartoonist (not only were there not many female lead comics back when the comic started in the 70s but there were even fewer that dealt so prominently with women's experiences). These free gifts she gave us all during some dark times has made me have even more respect for her!
November 24, 2021
Really liked the introduction. The page that said I only need makeup on the top half of my face! That made me laugh, that's all I do since mask wearing began -brows and lashes.
August 13, 2023
repeats itself after a while. YES we GET it cathy you eat too much and hate yourself. i still love you though.
April 24, 2022
3.5⭐
Lol same.
A funny and relatable (and also kinda depressing) comics collection about life in lockdown. Some of the comics are a bit exaggerated but I enjoyed most of them. This was both a good laugh and a comfort read. I definitely want to check out the author's backlist now!
Lol same.
A funny and relatable (and also kinda depressing) comics collection about life in lockdown. Some of the comics are a bit exaggerated but I enjoyed most of them. This was both a good laugh and a comfort read. I definitely want to check out the author's backlist now!
November 2, 2021
Another amazing book from Cathy Guisewite! These are the cartoons she wrote during the pandemic and lockdown and they are spot on. I laughed and saw myself on every page. She really helped us all get through the pandemic.
November 26, 2021
Not for me. I just feel like the quarantine jokes are a little overdone and didn’t land their best with me.
July 22, 2022
A book that resonated with my soul
Ever since “the year that must not be named” happened, life has moved so fast, and I kind of felt like we never got the closure we needed to move past such a dark chapter in our lives (even though it still feels like that chapter hasn’t completely ended).
I was at a bookstore yesterday waiting for my father, and that’s when I stumbled upon “Scenes from Isolation” by Cathy Guisewite . I started flipping through the pages, and almost every single one of them resonated with me (except the struggles of having a pet dog). I instantly knew I wanted to take this book home with me, and that’s exactly what I did.
The book is a collection of illustrations that can be used in conjunction with history, psychology, and sociology books a few years from now, to figure out what went on in our minds as we battled the toughest, most bizarre years of our lives. It documents our day-to-day struggles during the pandemic, and all the new sets of challenges we faced trying to figure out the “new normal” that was anything but normal.
I laughed quite a few times while reading the captions for the comics or the witty poems in between, and I’ve also shared some pages I really liked. The book has 150+ such illustrations, and Cathy did a wonderful job depicting the whirlwind of emotions we all experienced in our own ways, but may not have fully processed at the time. I thought the book was amusing, but also cathartic.
Ever since “the year that must not be named” happened, life has moved so fast, and I kind of felt like we never got the closure we needed to move past such a dark chapter in our lives (even though it still feels like that chapter hasn’t completely ended).
I was at a bookstore yesterday waiting for my father, and that’s when I stumbled upon “Scenes from Isolation” by Cathy Guisewite . I started flipping through the pages, and almost every single one of them resonated with me (except the struggles of having a pet dog). I instantly knew I wanted to take this book home with me, and that’s exactly what I did.
The book is a collection of illustrations that can be used in conjunction with history, psychology, and sociology books a few years from now, to figure out what went on in our minds as we battled the toughest, most bizarre years of our lives. It documents our day-to-day struggles during the pandemic, and all the new sets of challenges we faced trying to figure out the “new normal” that was anything but normal.
I laughed quite a few times while reading the captions for the comics or the witty poems in between, and I’ve also shared some pages I really liked. The book has 150+ such illustrations, and Cathy did a wonderful job depicting the whirlwind of emotions we all experienced in our own ways, but may not have fully processed at the time. I thought the book was amusing, but also cathartic.
May 16, 2023
A thousand percent yes! I used to read "Cathy" and was disappointed when she retired the strip. A working woman, home life, relationships, pet owner, all were relevant. Once I saw the book with single cell perspectives on the pandemic, I knew I had to get it. The book has 152 cartoons; I identified with at least 120 of them.
December 24, 2021
I use to read Cathy when I was in my early 30's, but I can say that she still makes me laugh outloud.
Clever takes on the pandemic, haircut issues and overeating.
Color drawings and super well done.
Clever takes on the pandemic, haircut issues and overeating.
Color drawings and super well done.
March 22, 2022
One of us
How many of us can relate to her while keeping s smile?
Short, funny, engaging this book is a nice way to understand we all went through it together.
That it could happen again, but we can survive ir.
How many of us can relate to her while keeping s smile?
Short, funny, engaging this book is a nice way to understand we all went through it together.
That it could happen again, but we can survive ir.
June 2, 2022
When people preemptively complained they didn't want to see the pandemic reflected in art or literature what they failed to consider was the prospect of Cathy in Quarantine, an essential artifact of the first year of our shared pandemic.
November 9, 2022
It was fun reading the scenes from isolation that Cathy wrote during the pandemic. I so enjoyed reading them everyday during the pandemic. They helped lighten the day. There were some that I missed so I'm glad Cathy put them all together in a book.
November 11, 2021
Solace and smiles in shared experiences.
November 21, 2021
This book is full of chuckles and happiness! Cathy Guisewite chronicles the lockdown of 2020 in her own unique style. I read just a few per day to extend the joy.
February 25, 2022
Cute collection. I think these were better in the moment though as she was posting to Instagram.
April 22, 2022
I love how this book helps us laugh at our pandemic experiences!
June 3, 2022
Hilarious, short, relatable read. Love the illustrations.
June 20, 2022
So many of these relate to my life. Nice to know I was not isolated in my isolation.
October 21, 2022
A collection of funny and relatable comics about our life in lockdown! This collection is a good way to remember those days!
March 8, 2025
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews