Revenge of the Latchkey Kids: An Illustrated Guide to Surviving the '90s and Beyond (Paperback)

~ (Author), Jules Feiffer (Author) "I've always had an attitude..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York City, United States, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ted Rall is pissed off. He has issues. He will never succeed with such a bad attitude--or maybe he already has. Revenge of the Latchkey Kids distills Rall's vast torrent of negative emotions into a passionate litany of what's screwed up in America today. If you're a Gen-Xer who suffered through the parental experiments of the 1970s, or ever slaved for meager pay and no benefits as a temp, or wondered when you'd ever pay off your student loans, Rall will hit a nerve. And then hit it again. And keep hitting it.

It would be simple to dismiss Rall as a whiner if he weren't so right all the time. Furthermore, at the risk of sounding like one of his cartoons, Rall performs a vital social function: he presents a point of view other than that of the demographic 800-pound gorilla, the baby boomer. Rall has no pity for that generation, which he sees as self-indulgent, hypocritical, and well, evil. But the cartoonist is an evenhanded demonizer: Gen-X fares little better; it's clear Rall has no illusions as to what nightmares would ensue if he and his compatriots ran things.

Revenge of the Latchkey Kids is a howl of anger--in perfect pitch. Ted Rall serves up an opinion you won't get anywhere else. Get some before he gives up.

Review

"(Revenge) plants well-aimed kicks on deserving corporate and baby-boomer behinds." (Entertainment Weekly)

"REVENGE features Rall's withering prose and angry, angular cartoons. He's funny. He's honest. He's onto something." (Arthur Salm, San Diego Tribune)

"Clever, biting, and all too true." (Elaine Beebe, The Salem Register Guard)

"More than an essayist and cartoonist, Rall is anthropologist, psychologist, and perhaps revolutionary." (Chris Davis, The Memphis Flyer)

"Rall is one of the fiercest, most unusual satirists producing cartoons for American newspapers today." -- Reviews

The sporadically funny result plants well-aimed kicks on deserving corporate and baby-boomer behinds. But in the end, his seething social observations resolve themselves into a one-note whine. -- Entertainment Weekly, L.S. Klepp

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (January 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761107452
• ISBN-13: 978-0761107453
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,986,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wise man shares his wisdom, May 17, 2000

By	"somestuff" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Ted Rall is a great guy who just happens to be a little angry. Fortunately he's learned to funnel this into a fantastic book which I highly recommend. If you've ever in any way found yourself disgruntled with a terrible workplace or happen to be a latch key kid yourself, this book will speak a lot of truth to you. It's clever and funny and I can't wait for Ted Rall's next tome.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very average, July 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Revenge of the Latchkey Kids: An Illustrated Guide to Surviving the '90s and Beyond (Paperback)

Although there were some items of amusement, for the most part, this book is rather cliche and the artwork lacks clarity. As a relative newcomer to the scene, however, this young man (I assume he is in his 20s) may have a bright future in the world of satire once he develops a unique outlook of his own and a bit more life experience from which to "draw" on.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for the new millenium, March 25, 2000

By	Alan Char (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ted Rall succeeds where Scott Adams fails. These cartoons are the biting real-life social commentary that Dilbert likes to think it is. Burn those Dilbert books and buy more Ted Rall.