Book Review: Catology

Today we bring you a brief review of the book Catology, by Adrian Searle and Oliver Ninnis. This is a collection of single-pane cartoons featuring…cats (obviously).  But it is not the sweet, cute sort of cat book you might expect. Nor is it entirely from the “cats are jerks” perspective. It’s more from the “cats are jerks, but that’s why we love them” perspective. We don’t agree with that perspective, and honestly we found several pages in this book a little too snarky for our taste, but still we found some things to chuckle at.

For example, the cat who thinks he has insomnia because he only slept for 14 hours. The cat who spends too much time “on the computer” (literally). The cat who’s offended because her person won’t even taste the “present” she’s brought. But then there are the ones about the cat who wants to eat his person’s face (literally) and the one who wants to shred her person’s feet (literally again, although I will tell you that old SoLT can relate to this one, because Real Cat Paisley has a certain special way of getting her attention when she is relaxing in the recliner with her feet sticking ever so slightly over the edge of the footrest).

Let’s just say we have mixed feelings about Catology, and those feelings all come down to how we feel about cats. Some of these cartoons are spot-on; some of them were too over the edge for our taste. So, if you’re solidly in the “cats are the cutest things ever” camp, you may want to steer clear of this collection. But if you like your cat humor a little edgier and you’re not easily offended, take a look at it—we think you’ll find some laughs!