"That Woman Must Be on Drugs"

1981, undated later edition, from St. Martin's Press
Nicole Hollander
"That Woman Must Be on Drugs": A Collection of Sylvia
Original price $3.95, purchase price $2.00
Slightly worn paperback
B

As the subtitle suggests, this collection focuses more on Sylvia, which I think makes it stronger, since she has a very definite point of view.  I laughed out loud a few times, with my favorite strip the one where Harry the Bartender cries, "My God!  Sylvia are you letting that cat smoke?", and Sylvia replies, "It's okay.  He doesn't inhale."  Not only is this funnier in post-President-Clintonian hindsight, but the expression of the slightly cross-eyed cat cracks me up.  Also, Hollander's last book to date is Nobody Owns a Cat, so I'm sure she knows that if the cat wants to smoke, even Sylvia couldn't stop it.

I've read but don't own Hollander's 1980 collection, "Ma, Can I Be a Feminist and Still Like Men?" (to which the answer is "Sure...just like you can be a vegetarian and still like chicken").  I do have 1982's "Mercy, It's the Revolution and I'm in My Bathrobe," so Sylvia will be making a welcome return shortly, no doubt spending the interval taking a bubble bath and making wry comments about televison, sometimes simultaneously.