In spite of the title, there isn’t much love to be found in New Yorker
cartoonist Kaplan’s collection of single-panel cartoons. Whether the protagonists are couples, parents and children, cocktail party attendees, or woodland animals, all share a fundamental hatred of themselves and one another. Kaplan spoofs various aspects of our modern angst, including psychobabble—one elf in Santa’s workshop says to the other, “Obviously, behind all the jolliness there’s a lot of rage”; the Web way of life—a wife walks up to her husband with the words, “There you are—I’ve been looking all over the Internet for you!”; and our hidden but ever-present insecurities—one sheep tells another, “Sometimes I worry I’m a wolf dressed as me.” Kaplan’s simple, chunky line drawings are the perfect accompaniment to his depressive jokes, simultaneously conveying heaviness of spirit and a vision of others as blank vehicles of urbane truisms. Anyone with a cynical bone in his or her body is bound to enjoy these dark gags. (Jan.)
