BOOK REVIEW: The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games

If you enjoy the humor of The New Yorker cartoons you will just love this puzzle book. The idea for this original approach to puzzling came about when Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker and Will Shortz, NPR’s puzzlemaster and crossword editor of The New York Times, first met while playing table tennis. Once the two of them realized the benefits of bringing cartoons and puzzle solving together they enlisted some help from the folks at the puzzle-writing company Puzzability and created this gem. I think one of the reasons that these two pastimes work so well together is they appeal to likeminded people. Whether its getting the joke in a cartoon or solving a puzzle, both require some imagination and are rewarded with that “aha” moment. If you enjoy stretching your imagination and the satisfaction of solving something then this book is truly for you. The fun and wit are the icing on the cake.

Each puzzle in the book takes a selection of New Yorker cartoons, under various themes like Caveman, Storefronts etc ., and then removes words, whole captions or picture components from the drawing. The challenge is then what you do with those missing elements. The puzzles range from just matching up the captions with their correct drawing to completing crosswords, acrostics and other word games with those missing captions. In some cases the mixing and matching of captions to drawings are wickedly funny in themselves.

Just seeing the range and variety of cartoons in this book is a delight. There are close to 700 different cartoons drawn by over 100 different artists. Furthermore, the cartoons span 8 decades with at least one from the 1920’s. What’s nice about this is one gets a sense of how much things have changed over the years; humor itself, drawing styles and everyday things in our lives. For example, there is one puzzle based on mainframe computer cartoons that appeared between 1957 and 1971.

Is this a book of very challenging puzzles? No, but it is a lot of fun and you definitely get a cerebral workout. I would recommend this book to both puzzlers looking for something different and to anyone who enjoys those witty New Yorker cartoons.