Stuff by Joey: The Difficulty of Life: A Review of Herding Cats by Sarah Andersen

Adulthood is a voyage fraught with highs that make you believe that you could touch the sun and lows that drag you lower than you ever thought possible. The very challenges become very much like trying to herd cats, somehow finding a way to become nearly impossible to overcome. To tackle this conundrum, Sarah Andersen returns with an all new collection of comics titled Herding Cats, continuing with her theme of adjusting to the world with the ever anxious and ever loved character Sarah. Readers continue to laugh, cry, cry while laughing, and relate to Andersen’s entertaining comics in this latest anthology.

Herding Cats is the continuation of Andersen’s character, Sarah. In this new volume we see Sarah face life with the same level of excitement and anxiety as she counts the days to Hallowe’en, meeting deadlines, and that delayed pain that hits after stubbing your baby toe. Along with these entertaining comics, Andersen shares with her readers how she was able to accomplish her success via the world of the internet and how to navigate this brave new world where everyone has a megaphone and will proclaim their opinions and discern from the constructive and delusional.

One of the things that works in Andersen’s advantage is this continued theme of adjusting. Her first anthology Adulthood is a Myth looks at adjusting to the new work of adulthood and the idea of what defines adulthood; A Big Mushy Happy Lump can be seen as adjusting to limitations life puts on you and coming to acceptance with those limits. Herding Cats continues this trend with the theme of adjusting and accepting the uncontrollable situations and problems life throws your way. One example of this can be seen in her comic “Taking Care Of…”; here we see in the first three panels showing Sarah being loving to her pets, friends, and boyfriend but when we see Sarah taking care of herself, we see Sarah throwing a copy of herself in to a trash can (5). This is an easy thing we all do, we put people before ourselves and end up leaving our personal needs to the side or being harder on ourselves when things go wrong. Because we are busy putting others first, we end up leaving our own needs behind.

In addition, Andersen’s comics continue their relatability between the reader and Sarah. In the comic “Me + Me: A Great Time!”, we see Sarah finding enjoyment in talking to herself, having a fashion show with herself, and dancing with herself (78). The relatability is seen in how the comic shows the joy one can get with solitude or alone time. Being around does have its benefits and I’m sure there are benefits to social interaction and there are probably stacks of articles by leading scientists and psychologists that back those... But let’s be honest sometimes it’s better have alone time and play on the phone (shut up about how the very fabric of society is being ripped apart by people being on their phones!) and not everyone actually benefits from being about people, like introverts where the opposite can be true in some cases.

Another example is in the comic “Comfort Zone”, here Andersen opens with the line “life begins at the end of your comfort zone” and shows Sarah, wrapped in a blanket, stepping out of a small circle with the work “progress” appearing overhead after the first step (80). I’ve always been of the opinion that life is not easy but it is fair. We are born with nothing and life promises us nothing, so we therefore have to reach out for what we want. Because of life’s difficulty, we tend to stick with what’s comfort able or good enough and forget what we want. Stepping out of out of our comfort zone is never the easy choice but is necessary. Sometimes what is acceptable isn’t healthy like an unhealthy relationship, poor health choices, living somewhere that isn’t safe. Because of that the comfort zone isn’t necessarily the best place. That isn’t to say you should always be running out of the comfort zone, sometimes little steps make better progress and are more realistic some instances.

In conclusion, Herding Cats by Sarah Andersen is a book worth reading. The book’s themes and comics are still as relatable as it’s predecessors and are just as enjoyable as ever. Therefore, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Herding Cats at your nearest book store.