Slackjaw

I just finished reading Slackjaw, by Jim Knipfel, again. It's been a few years, but it's just as funny and sad as I remember. For those of you who don't know the book, Jim Knipfel writes (wrote?) a series of articles called "Slackjaw," as well as a few non-fiction books, and now The Buzzing, a novel. This guy is like Charlie Brown with really bad karma. I think the Chicago Sun-Times says it best, on the back cover of the book: "For a guy who has attempted suicide several times, he sure is funny."
But this book isn't about his suicide attempts (or at least, not mainly about them). Nor is it about his time spent in a locked psych ward (for that experience, check out his book Escaping the Nairobi Trio- also worth a read).
No. This book is about him slowly going blind due to genetic disease. Could things get any worse? Yes. Add drinking problems, suicidal tendencies, a love of reading and writing, an ill-advised marriage, rage seizures, and the Nihilist Worker's Party, and you've got the general idea.
Somehow, through being brutally honest and absolutely refusing to be melodramatic, Knipfel emerges heroic, wielding his Blind Man cane (as he calls it), which, when you try to beat someone with it, goes flubbity flubbity.
Kinda puts things in perspective. I feel like an asshole for bitching about my shoulder.