The New Yorker Book of Cat Cartoons

I thought I was getting a paperback version of the original hardback book of cartoons. It is the same book but the paperback version is much smaller than the hardback.

The New Yorker has all these things, and the combination of cats and The New Yorker is a felicitious one. These witty, wonderful cartoons are just the thing to bring a sparkle to even the most glazed of eyes.Two ladies sipping tea, a cat strolling past tail in the air. "Whe she was little," one says "we had a very close relationship, but now we're just friends."And a hundred others. A book is not as good as a cat, but this one is halfway there.

Cats you say? Take a look at the cover. Take a good look. Nobody does it like THE NEW YORKER. 101 cartons and 65 years later, the cats still have the last laugh. High level stuff and highly recommended!

I rated this book based on the hardcover version, but I do want to put in a word against the miniature paperback version in the beginning. Avoid the miniature paperback: It is very tiny, reproduced poorly, the paper quality is not good, and some of the material cannot be seen without a magnifying glass. The only drawback I saw to the hardcover version was the lack of a witty introduction. I graded it down one star for that lack. The New Yorker cartoon books on business and money have wonderful introductions, unlike this one.In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that I do not have a cat. Yet I have many friends who do, and I tried to view these cartoons through their eyes.The main cartoonists of these 102 cartoons are Charles Addams, Tom Cheney, Helen Hokinson, Frank Modell, Mischa Richter, Danny Shanahan, William Steig, and Saul Steinberg. The cartoons generally follow one of the following styles: juxtaposing cats for dogs; anthropomorphizing cats; and treating humans like cats. These formats were predictable enough that the humor worked best when one of the categories was not followed, such as in a cartoon with no words where a cat is seen scratching against an arm chair while a man sits in it reading the newspaper -- chair, man, and newspaper all bear the same scratch marks everywhere. Here are a few of my favorites:A woman letting a large number of cats out of the back door: "Everyone be home by two o'clock."No words: A man sits in a chair reading with his feet on a bear skin run. Behind him, a cat lies in a bed with a mouseskin rug on the floor in front.A man receiving a call at work: "Your wife feels that your cat needs to hear an authoritative male voice."One mouse to another: "Miss Egan, bring me everything we have on cats."Dog to cat: "Hey, pal, let's hear 'Doggie in the Window' again, and this time play it like you mean it!"Cat to cat in bow tie: "I'm sorry, but I think it's uncatlike."Cat in casts to another cat in casts in vet's office: "I tried to make it from the windowsill to the top of the refrigerator. How about you?"Cat behind loan officer desk in bank to dog: "Beg."Man to cat: "The fact that you cats were considered sacred in ancient Egypt cuts no ice with me."Person shouting through the window to a woman in a roomful of cats: "Glendora Hogan got another load of cats, Elinor honey. Can you take a couple?"Let this good-natured look at one of our favorite animal friends liven up your day, and remind you of the humor behind everything. It's only our stalled thinking that denies us a good laugh at everything!

The cartoons are what you would expect from the New Yorker: pithy and full of wit. The subjects themselves capture what we must think, albeit anthropomorphically, that cats see and contemplate when they view us or act around humans. It is all so believable, in a sardonic way, and because of that truly wonderful.