Chast brings on the funnies about her VERY ACTIVE nocturnal imagination. She covers in great, and hilarious detail, dreams that have popped up in her unconscious state. I particularly enjoyed the one where Chast, returning from shopping, is looking for her car, and wondering how she lost the frozen turkey she had purchased. Though it's an activity I don't much enjoy in waking life, many, many of my dreams seem to be about shopping. Usually I'm in a thrift store, and find an unbelievably valuable item for mere pennies. In my most memorable dream, I found an old cross stitch sampler for four bucks. It was signed and dated, Yoko Ono - 1943. I was pretty pissed when I woke and didn't have that sampler in my possession.

Anyway, if you're a Chast fan, like me, you're going to love visiting her strange and wonderful dreams.

Another hilarious complex beautifully drawn graphic novel by Roz Chast.We enter into her wild ride of her dreamworld.I enjoyed laughed and entered her wild life of dreams.#netgalley #bloomsbury

I Must Be Dreaming
Roz Chast
Bloomsbury Publishing
October 24, 2023, release

Roz Chast’s "I Must Be Dreaming" is her brand-new illustrated non-fiction collection destined to delight, engage, and illicit a dozen plus guffaws from her regular readers and (dare I say it?) more newbies.

As a regular contributing cartoonist to "The New Yorker" since 1978, Chast’s awkward, self-deprecating, thoroughly New York City entrenched style not only tickles the funny bones but pulls at your heartstrings as she introduces relatable topics such as her own health, aging parents, and the embarrassments of day-to-day life.

"I Must Be Dreaming" takes readers on an Oz-like ride through the Dreamscape that is Chast’s nocturnal wonderland. Highlighting her lifelong fascination with dreams, they are entertaining, and they are free, she also inserts useful tidbits relative to the contemporary understanding of dreams.

For example, neurologist Sigmund Freud believed dreams uncovered our most repressed sexual desires and pent-up fears. Psychiatrist Carl Jung’s interpretation of dreams included a core belief that our unconscious mind is attempting to communicate with our waking mind.

Chast cordons her dreams into sections for her book such as:

• Recurring Dreams
• Lucid Dreams
• Celebrity Dreams (co-stars include Henry Kissinger, Elizabeth Taylor, Wallace Shawn, Danny DeVito, and a surprise cameo by Chris Rock)
• Nightmares
• Everyday Dreams
o the apocalypse!
o who the heck is this baby?
o stealing a sock display
o another World Trade Center attack (but not really)

Threaded throughout Roz Chast’s "I Must Be Dreaming" are recognitions of modern truths many hide with humor: what it is like to live through a terrorist attack or ground zero for a pandemic. But her humor is rarely exclusionary. She aims to bring us all in on her jokes. If we are not laughing because we are crying, Chast will help dry our tears.

Thank you to Roz Chast, Bloomsbury Publishing, and NetGalley for the eARC!

I'm a big fan of Roz Chast......but this was too much text/written words for me, too much 'informative text'....I must be more of a fan of her drawings & quick quips/offerings! Maybe the subject of dream is so subjective/personal/off the wall/out there....that it's hard to find much to relate to? Usually when reading/enjoying Chast's cartoons, I often find myself thinking 'Yep, so true, uh uh, been there!' But with this book, I found only 1 or 2 panels that I could relate to. Will still always read Roz Chast!
I received a digital galley from Bloomsbury Publishing via NetGalley for review purposes. These opinions are my own.

Roz Chast has tackled many subjects with humor and a unique perspective. This time, she explores the world of dreams in a book that has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. It is deserved in my opinion.

The appearance of this book is striking and engaging. There are many graphics/illustrations and the text looks like handwriting.

Some of this book’s chapters include Recurring Dreams, Celebrity Dreams, Nightmares, Food Dreams and more. Many describe the author’s dreams. The book ends with a few additional sections including one on recommended reading.

Much of the book is personal and Chast is a great guide to her dreams and, by extension, asks the reader to consider theirs. She also imparts some information on dreams in general.

Pay attention to the cartoons. They are idiosyncratic. Some may make a reader chuckle.

This book will be enjoyed by those who like the quirky and by fans, new and old, of the author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for this title. All opinions are my own.

Dreaming is an interesting topic and is not easily explained. Everyone has a different opinion and experience. I did not feel connected with her explanations and felt annoyed at some of them. Other readers might feel better connected but I did not. Again, everyone has different opinions. Thanks for the ARC.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Bloomsbury USA for an advance copy of this illustrated guide to the dreamscapes of a famed New Yorker Cartoonist.

I have always been a lucid dreamer. For quite a while, until somehow I either forgot or reality was too hard for me to forget at night, I could pretty much control at least half of what I would dream. Before settling in I could tell myself tonight you will be dressed in full Luke Skywalker Tatoonie garb, white shirt, utility belt that look, wrestling a masked luchador wearing a Tusken Raider mask, in a cage in the middle of the Mos Eisley cantina, well I would dream most of that. Which probably says more about me, than my skills at controlling my dreams. Though I would love to see Roz Chast illustrate that dream. I Must Be Dreaming by the bestselling New Yorker Cartoonist is a collection of dreams both Chast's and others, illustrated in Chast's unique style. A sort of updating of Little Nemo in Slumberland for the modern age.

The book begins with Chast discussing her dreams and where some of them came from or what they might mean. Chast shares dreams from her youth, drug dreams, dreams that might have gone onto being works she sold, and others that were passed up by The New Yorker. Chast also looks at where dreams might come from, what they might mean, and has an excellent bibliography at the end for more information. And from there Morpheus, I mean Chast spreads the sand and we enter the land of the dreamscape. There are dreams of celebrities, food, bad moments, parents long gone and more. Some are like the movie Inception, dreams within dreams, and sometimes more. Many end far differently than how they started, and makes one wonder what Chast might have been eating before going to bed.

There is not a story or a narrative per se, like a Little Nemo or a Sandman story. These are dreams without meaning, fresh from them mind, and many are weird without meaning. Chast is both a good writer and a great illustrator. I don't know if it helps that these are her dreams but the art really captures the feeling the dreamer must have been having. The feeling of confusion, or wonder, sometimes of loss as one see a loved one who is no more. There is lot of humor, of course, but a lot of wow. Wow as in that's cra-cra, and also the wow of knowing the human brain is capable of so much. Why do these come out, and why do we think the way we do.

A light book that would be good for someone going through something. The book is funny, light, and pleasant, and full of wonder at what the brain can do when able to be free of all the things we live under. Another outstanding book by a gifted and talented illustrator.

3.5 stars. This was fine, but I guess I'm struggling to imagine any readership other than casual. I read it casually: I happened across it and I recognized the author; I am generally interested in brain science and psychology and I'm a GN reader. I'm not sure there would be any avid or rabid readers for this, so it feels a little lost to me.

Readers must love Chast's illustration style. Combined with the content, it edges toward extra creepy at times.

One point that I got hung up on: early in the book, the author lists the things that are cool about dreaming, including that it's free, no special equipment is required, etc. One of these listed points is ~"everyone does it"~ (not a direct quote, because I read the ARC and that's not allowed, and also I don't have it in front of me, but that's the gist). When my autoimmune illness started flaring a few years ago, I stopped dreaming(/recalling my dreams, not sure which, but it doesn't really matter for the purposes of this observation). I brought it up with a number of doctors over the course of my diagnosis search and treatment, but it was never of interest to them. Only very recently (within the last 4-6 months) have I started to occasionally dream again, maybe once per week. The experience of dreaming, after going 5-ish years without any, is so weird it usually wakes me up, impacts my sleep for the rest of the night, and/or weirds me out for the whole of the next day. I'm not even having creepy dreams, like teeth on a non-toothed item, nightmares, or night terrors-- they're just regular ("regular") dreams. So what the author probably intended as an off-the-cuff, completely innocuous statement left me feeling othered again because of my weird, weird illness.

eARC from NetGalley.

3.5 stars
I always enjoy hearing about people’s dreams and Roz Chast’s style makes a quick and easy read. I expected more thoughts about dream interpretations but much of the book was about actual dreams instead. Recommended if you enjoy Chast and a touch of light humor.

Roz Chast takes us into her dream world and the results are pure Roz; hilarious, smart, a little neurotic, and full of heart. I'll never think of my Aunt Sharon in the same way again.

Roz Chast is Queen of wonderful thoughtful-provoking graphic art novels.
The quality of her work fantastic and brilliant.
I love her!!

“I Must Be Dreaming” is Roz’s new creation. The book will be released in October 2023.
I’ll purchase the hardcopy then. I have a *Chast-Collection* (her books are always a hit choice to share with our Airbnb guests who visit)

In the meantime I read the advance copy on my iPhone (no kidding)….
I read more than half of it when I was at the hospital yesterday for about four hours having tests - blood work, and a pneumonia shot.
Ha—
….and I thought I was just going to see my internist because she called me and saying it was time.
This slim book gave me much pleasure between a screaming baby and a man - also screaming with a bad case of Tourette’s syndrome. ( poor guy)…..
I was so happy to finally get back home - eat - and begin watching ‘The Wire’ on Netflix
(Thank you Jennifer)- needed something to dive into after ‘Succession’)
Then this morning I finished the rest of this gem at home.

The topic [about our dreams] is interesting. I don’t think about my dreams much. But my husband has wild ones all the time. I’m a little jealous.

Roz writes:
“This book is dedicated to the Dream District of our brains, that weird and uncolonized area where anything can happen, from the sublime to the mundane to the ridiculous
to the off-the-charts bats”.
[fire, guilt, Art, past, My Mother, money, etc.]

“We are all creative geniuses in our sleep”.
Isn’t that the truth!

*Table of Contents*
….Reoccurring dreams
….Lucid dreams
….Celebrity dreams
….Cartoon-idea dreams
….Nightmares
….Body Horrors
….Good dreams
….Everyday dreams
….Dream, fragments, or ones that got away
….A note about the dreams
….A brief theory through Dream-theory land
Recommended reading

“According to many people dreams, as a conversational topic, should be avoided, along with aches and pains.
Only shrinks are interested, and maybe not even them”.

Why dreaming is so great…..
…..it’s free entertainment
…..you don’t need special clothes or equipment
…..etc. (a list of other funnies)… plus we can add our own.

Wild dreams about….
….A room with five hot tubs - for actor’s between takes (fully clothed)
….Ted Lasso
….swans dancing
….awkward moments
….fearful situations
….grossed out dreams
….talking mango?
….green beans
….a sensitive visits from someone who died
….fearless graceful roller skaters
….close call significance
…. disaster strikes
….messages from God
….etc. etc.

This is a tiny powerhouse adorable book — about 130 pages.

What’s ‘not’ to love about Roz Chast?
Nothin!!!