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Slackjaw
Slackjaw
Author: Jim Knipfel
The acclaimed comic memoir by the popular New York Press columnist. ... — "An extraordinary emotional ride. It is maniacally aglow with a born storyteller's gifts of observation and an amiably deranged sense of humor."-- TheThomas Pynchon — "Knipfel may be blind, but his artistic vision is as stunning as a sunset over the Brooklyn Br...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780425173305
ISBN-10: 0425173305
Publication Date: 2/1/2000
Pages: 235
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 19

3.9 stars, based on 19 ratings
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
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reviewed Slackjaw on + 17 more book reviews
Extraordinary!! Read it in one sitting.
MediumDebbi avatar reviewed Slackjaw on + 92 more book reviews
Jim Knipfel is right up there with David Sedaris and Dave Barry as far as funny episodic writing goes! Jim suffers from retinitis pigmentosa which diminishes his eyesight to the point of being legally blind. He also deals with some brain lesions and alchoholism. Through it all he manages to be hilarious ad sarcastic as anybody might be trying to multitask. Check it out, this is a great"disease book"!
reviewed Slackjaw on + 29 more book reviews
This book is a true, gritty look at the life of someone who becomes blind at a young age. Full of humor, darkness, and truthfulness, an alcoholic learns how to deal and teaches the reader lessons on life along the way.
reviewed Slackjaw on + 6 more book reviews
Amazon.com
Who would have thought a memoir about going blind and suffering from severe depression could be so funny? From the opening scene, when an uncle who has the same degenerative eye disease warns 12-year-old Jim, "You better start learning Braille now," Knipfel defies all the conventional responses to adversity. You can't help but laugh when a doctor "who had obviously been playing hooky when they were teaching sensitivity in medical school" tells a wailing woman who has just learned her son is dying, "Please sit down... [he] has a good two or three weeks yet." The hard-edged humor comes naturally to a guy who as a grad student formed a band called the Pain Amplifiers; we're not exactly surprised to learn that his column for an alternative newspaper prompted hate mail as well as fan letters. Knipfel's complete lack of self-pity conveys the particulars of failing vision with blunt immediacy (he wears a wide-brimmed hat so he'll feel impending lampposts before he knocks himself senseless against them). His zest for the world's absurdities makes this book an exhilarating guide to "the weirdness parade I have been marching in my whole life." --Wendy Smith


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