About the Book
The award-winning cartoonist, playwright, and author delivers a witty, illustrated rendition of his life, from his childhood as a wimpy kid in the Bronx to his legendary career in the arts.
A gifted storyteller who has delighted readers and theater audiences for decades, Jules Feiffer now turns his talents to the tale of his own life.
Plagued by learning problems, a controlling mother, and a debilitating sense of fear, Feiffer embarked on his first cartoon apprenticeship at the age of seventeen, emboldened only by a passion for success and an aptitude for failure. He vividly recalls those transformative years working under the legendary Will Eisner, and later, after he was drafted into the army, his evolution from "smart-ass kid into an enraged satirist." "Backing into Forward" also traces Feiffer's love life, from a doomed hitchhiking trip to reclaim his high-school sweetheart to losing his virginity in Greenwich Village, and his road to marriage and fatherhood.
At the center of this journey is Feiffer's prolific creativity. In dazzling detail, he recounts the birth of his subversive graphic novella "Munro," his entree into New York's literary salons, collaborations with film greats Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, and Jack Nicholson, and other major turning points. Brimming with wry punch lines, slices of Americana, and pithy social commentary, "Backing into Forward" charts Feiffer's rise as an unlikely and incisive provocateur during the conformist fifties and the Vietnam and Civil Rights sixties and seventies.
About the Author :
JULES FEIFFER's Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip ran for forty-two years in the "Village Voice" and one hundred other papers." "He also penned the Obie Award-winning play "Little Murders" and the screenplay for "Carnal Knowledge." He lives in New York City.
Review :
National Jewish Book Award Finalist!
"Resonant, self--lacerating and frequently hilarious . . . . The voice in "Backing Into Forward "is not spry, not pretty energetic for an old person, but youthful, full of insouciance, vanity and playfulness. While other accomplished men bronze their success or dip it in amber, Feiffer treats his own as one big, wonderful caper."
--"The New York Times Book Review"
"["Backing Into Forward"] succeeds in sounding like the best of Mr. Feiffer's cartoons: funny, acerbic, subversive, fiercely attuned to the absurdities in his own life and in the country at large."
--MichikoKakutani, "The New York Times"
"Writing with wit, angst, honesty, and self-insights, Feiffer shares a vast and complex interior emotional landscape. Intimate and entertaining, his autobiography is a revelatory evocation of fear, ambition, dread, failure, rage, and, eventually, success."
--"Publishers Weekly," starred review
"Feiffer is a fantastic raconteur, a thoroughly engaging narrator of his life, whether recollecting 1950s Greenwich Village and Brooklyn, his false starts at love and sex, his failed first marriage, his (happy) remarriage or parenthood. However entertaining his anecdotes are, nothing is more absorbing than the passages in which Feiffer talks about his struggles and triumphs as an artist. It's fascinating to read about his process, which is intuitive and spontaneous rather than analytical . . . . Best of all, a number of Feiffer's drawings, from various stages of his life, are interspersed throughout the book. His writing voice, just like his drawing style, is loose and accessible, making you feel as though you've spent time in his charming presence."
"--The Dallas Morning News
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"Lively and engaging . . . . "Backing Into Forward" is a fine companion to [Feiffer's] art. It's also an illuminating book about the creative process, an entertaining read, and a cautionary tale about an era that really doesn'
