Slackjaw [Paperback]

Jim Knipfel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1999

A columnist for the "New York Press" provides the story of a young writer surviving the onslaught of retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease the final result of which is blindness.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Readers of the alternative New York Press newspaper who are familiar with Knipfel's irreverent "Slackjaw" column won't be surprised to read that this memoir of his grudging capitulation to a degenerative eye disease is the antithesis of the therapeutic memoir. Knipfel is honest, but not earnest; if he has any epiphanies, he presents them with more than a grain of salt. In the introduction, he explains the rare genetic disease, retinitis pigmentosa, and mentions the ensuing complication of a brain lesion and its alarming physical and emotional symptoms. Knipfel's writing is marked by bitter wit and manic irony. His ability to be funny about what happens to him leaves the reader no choice but to laugh along with him. Knipfel wore glasses from the age of three, but his parents seem to have had no inkling of the seriousness of his vision problems. An uncle, however, appeared prophetic when he said to the 12-year-old Knipfel, "You'd better start learning Braille now." But an accurate diagnosis wasn't made until Knipfel was in his late 20s. Knipfel claims to have had a natural contrariness and, to illustrate the point, informs readers that he habitually wore a Chicago Bears jersey in Green Bay. Later, in New York City, Knipfel's marriage went into a tailspin, his sight worsened and he blundered through a series of ridiculous encounters with the bureaucracy of blindness organizations?all of which he makes sound quite funny. Beyond the humor, however, his sharp sense of the absurd and his candor about his own considerable failings of character provide a moving reflection on what it is to face blindness and not, under any circumstance, to feel sorry for himself.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; Uncorrected proof. edition (February 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874779499
• ISBN-13: 978-0874779493
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,381,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to defend laughing out loud about blindness, etc....., February 19, 2001

By 

Deborah A. Brookhart (Evergreen Park,, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slackjaw (Paperback)

I'm one of those people who love "true medical/Emergency Room/crime/forensic pathology" kinds of stories and am especially fond of sick humor. I read this book during downtime at work and had to stop reading because I kept laughing so hard I was almost crying. When co-workers asked what was so funny, they looked at me strangely when I tried to explain that it was the memoirs of an alcoholic, sometimes-employed man who was facing impending blindness. Go figure!! I recommended it to my equally twisted brother who liked it, as well.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Grad Student Drunk Goes Blind In An Entertaining Way, July 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Slackjaw (Paperback)

Although I rarely read Knipfel's columns in the New York Press, I read this book in one sitting. As an oft-suicidal drunk I certainly related to much of what Knipfel wrote in this blackly comic memoir. He certainly does seem to be a bad-luck magnet. And I personally don't care if his stories are embellished--what writer doesn't, after all? (To Knipfel's neighbor: he makes it quite clear that he is not entirely blind and often does not use the cane. And he is extremely detailed, both about the retinitis pigmentosa and the brain lesions...WHY would he make that stuff up??) The writing is that of a smart, under-employed dude who prefers living on the dark side. We all know lots of folks like that. My only cavil is that Knipfel would probably feel a lot less depressed if he addressed his alcoholism frontally, but at this point it seems too interwoven into his world view and self-characterization for him to attempt that. (Believe me, I've been there.) Perhaps when he's older and the body stops being able to tolerate it. In any event, I recommend this book highly.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LED BY THE BLIND, March 28, 2001

By 

Heather C. Liston (Santa Fe, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slackjaw (Paperback)

Slackjaw By Jim Knipfel

This well-written memoir of career setbacks, divorce, brain tumors, encroaching blindness, and miscellaneous failure is -- well, believe it or not -- it's funny and even warm-hearted. Knipfel has a gift for appreciating the quirky, the smart, and the loveable, whenever they appear in his world of both metaphorical and literal darkness.