Books: To Afghanistan And Back

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He may well be America's Most-Despised Cartoonist--a title he earned earlier this year by making fun of Sept. 11 widows--but at least Rall came by his iconoclasm the hard way. Last November he went to Afghanistan, where he spent the next few weeks bored, terrified and enraged with the corruption and cynicism he witnessed. Rall's "graphic travelogue" is a gritty mix of photos, prose and his distinctive cartoons, which look as if they were drawn on the back of a math notebook. Though his perpetual jadedness can be infuriating, it's an astringent alternative to government press releases and the network news. --By Lev Grossman