Is it possible to find humor -- corrosive, taboo-shattering, laugh-till-you-cry humor -- in the story of a 38-year-old- cartoonist who's both a quadriplegic and a recovering alcoholic? The answer is yes, if the cartoonist is John Callahan -- whose infamous work has graced the pages of Omni, Penthouse, and The New Yorker -- and if he's telling it in his own words and pictures. But Callahan's uncensored account of his troubled -- and sometimes impossible -- life is also genuinely inspiring. Without self-pity or self-righteousness, this liberating book tells us how a quadriplegic with a healthy libido has sex, what it's like to live in the exitless maze of the welfare system, where a cartoonist finds his comedy, and how a man with no reason to believe in anything discovers his own brand of faith.
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"When people laugh like hell and then say, 'That's not funny', you can be pretty sure they're talking about John Callahan."
-- P.J.,O'Rourke, author of Holidays in Hell
"Actually Callahan goes too far, and he'll take you with him.... He'll move muscles you don't know you have." -- Roy Blount, Jr.
"John Callahan doesn't need feet to go far. He does it with guts, brains, fingers, and a wonderful sick sense of humor."
-- P.J.,O'Rourke, author of Holidays in Hell
"Actually Callahan goes too far, and he'll take you with him.... He'll move muscles you don't know you have." -- Roy Blount, Jr.
"John Callahan doesn't need feet to go far. He does it with guts, brains, fingers, and a wonderful sick sense of humor."
From the Inside Flap
Is it possible to find humor -- corrosive, taboo-shattering, laugh-till-you-cry humor -- in the story of a 38-year-old- cartoonist who's both a quadriplegic and a recovering alcoholic? The answer is yes, if the cartoonist is John Callahan -- whose infamous work has graced the pages of Omni, Penthouse, and The New Yorker -- and if he's telling it in his own words and pictures. But Callahan's uncensored account of his troubled -- and sometimes impossible -- life is also genuinely inspiring. Without self-pity or self-righteousness, this liberating book tells us how a quadriplegic with a healthy libido has sex, what it's like to live in the exitless maze of the welfare system, where a cartoonist finds his comedy, and how a man with no reason to believe in anything discovers his own brand of faith.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John Callahan has written a fabulous book for almost any audience, mature mid-teens and older. One could call it irreverent and funny, morbidly funny in places. But it's much more than that.
The opener sets the tone: "On the last day I walked, I woke up without a hangover. I was still loaded from the night before." On one level it's the story of his life. We watch as he becomes addicted to chemicals at a very early age, starting with alcohol at twelve. We watch him cruising through his teen years, experimenting with other drugs. We learn about his adoptive family dynamics, his Catholic upbringing, his alienation from his father, how he was with friends, and his resentment towards his birth mother, who he feels abandoned him.
The last day he walked he was twenty-one. He and his buddy, also drunk and the driver, left a topless bar and drove into a utility pole at ninety. Callahan takes the reader through the most vivid description I've ever read of what it is like to become paralyzed in all four limbs, have sex as a person with quadriplegia, what the rehabilitation process entails, and how difficult re-entry is. For the first time I began to understand how critical a personal care assistant is for a person with quadriplegia, and how dealing with the vagaries of a state welfare program can virtually make or break one's ability to function.
He shares unusually open insights into his involvement with Alcoholics Anonymous, and his successful struggle to control his addiction, his triumph over self-pity. We follow his intense and persistent search for his birth mother, and his reconciliation with old friends and his adoptive family.
And finally, we see a gifted cartoonist and writer hone his skills, submit his work, and be rejected. Callahan shows us the real meaning of tenacity as he continues his craft, mostly at night, "his time." Eventually he becomes recognized and his sometimes infamous work is widely published, from Penthouse to the New Yorker. He relishes the thrill of creating.
In short, this is a sobering, instructive, yet humorous book about his life, and life in general, by a gifted man. On another level, it's a book about sheer guts, tenacity, and believing in oneself. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot is a very easy read, and although first published ten years ago, its appeal is timeless. I strongly recommend it and thank my friend Dennis for introducing me to it.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I didn't pick this up strictly to read the autobiography of a quadriplegic, or to read a journal of a man's struggle with alcoholism. Rather, I was interested in the the life story of a man who has produced some of the most raw, funny, and disturbing cartoons I've ever seen. I ended up with all three.
The stories are very compelling; beginning with the car accident that left Callahan crippled and moving back (to his upbringing in an adoptive Irish Catholic family in Oregon) and forth (to his search for his biological mother), with keen insights along the way (such as the irony of how our welfare system discourages the handicapped from trying to become productive members of society -- with specific examples) and ending with a day-in-the-life snapshot. All throughout, we are treated to Callahan's illustrations and cartoons.
The narrative is every bit as raw as his cartoons. He doesn't sugar coat his alcoholism; nor does he shirk from talking about his relationship with The Big G as he tried to kick the bottle (uh... figuratively speaking, of course). He describes unflinchingly the bad things he'd done as well as the good; there is no sense of self-pity or holier-than-thou coming through. This is one of the few books I've picked up lately that demanded my full attention.
John Callahan emerges from this book as a very interesting man; a flawed hero worthy of our attention. I highly recommend it, and I'll be reading his follow up (Will the Real John Callahan Please Stand Up?) next.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Laura Troise
Format:Paperback
Whether you are an alcoholic yourself or only know of one, this is the best book you can get your hands on to help you understand the life of anyone with a drinking problem.
It would be easy to dismiss this as a humor book, or a self-help book, or as just another biography of someone who has overcome adversity, but in truth it is a book about a man who could be anyone of us. It is not a matter of "There but for the grace of God..." but that we are all, like him, just people trying to find our way in this world. Some of us eat too much, some work to hard, some drink.
It's John's story of his recovery which makes me recommend this book so highly. He takes the reader through his worst crashes and every painful moment of his time in AA so that we truly feel and understand what it means to have a bottle in charge of your life.
If you have a drinking problem yourself, or know someone who does, I would, to paraphrase John, take them by the fastest transportation available to the nearest copy of this book. It is definately worth the read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laughter is the best medicine
I loved this book. It's been a while since I read it, but I remember it very well, it is the kind of memoir you won't soon forget. Read more
Published 12 months ago by K. Rusinack
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why I Never Wrote My Autobiography After Becoming a Quadriplegic at 23
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
At 23, also in a car accident, I became a member of the very unpopular club that John Callahan joined, a quadriplegic, although I have... Read more
At 23, also in a car accident, I became a member of the very unpopular club that John Callahan joined, a quadriplegic, although I have... Read more
Published on December 25, 2008 by Hotquad
4.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone is Drunk and Crazy
I've read a fair number of stories about substance abuse by people both unknown and famous (rock star biographies are nothing if not diaries of substance abuse), and I gotta hand... Read more
Published on February 14, 2008 by buddyhead
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable book - the true life story of a quadriplegic reformed drunk
John Callahan tells a funny and honest story about a man who put himself into a wheelchair (drunk driving) and then continued to drink for years after he became a quadriplegic. Read more
Published on February 10, 2008 by Sam I Am
5.0 out of 5 stars
"relatively" good
Full disclosure: My brother is married to John's sister. I recommend this book to all of my friends who have never heard of John. Read more
Published on August 21, 2007 by Patrick Duffy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Callahan is where it's at. Wonderful story of strength, grit, perserversance, and recovery. Of course the belly laughs along the way were fun also. Some of those cartoons ! Read more
Published on August 14, 2006 by Sharon Ann Leduc
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read!
John Callahan is my favorite crippled cartoonist! He's honest and hilarious! I've been a fan for years and have most of his cartoon books. Read more
Published on October 29, 2004 by R. C. Olson
5.0 out of 5 stars
funny as hell
it's brutally honest, funny as hell. i never thought his cartoons were very funny, but this book is one of the funniest i've ever read. Read more
Published on August 13, 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot
This autobiography goes far beyond the sentimentality one would expect from a quadriplegic who stuggles against adversity. Read more
Published on October 19, 2000 by Robert Dorroh
5.0 out of 5 stars
A funny and touching autobiography
It's amazing how nasty, insightful and funny are Callahan's cartoons. In this book he relates the incidents that turned him into an alcoholic quadriplegic -and into one of the... Read more
Published on October 11, 2000 by Alexis S. Mendez
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