[Slackjaw] is an extraordinary emotional ride, through the lives and times of reader and writer alike, maniacally aglow with a born storyteller's gifts of observation, an amiably deranged sense of humor, and a heart too bounced around by his history, and ours, not to have earned Mr. Knipfel, at last, an unsentimental clarity that is generous and deep. What begins as a cautionary tale turns out to be, after all, an exemplary American life. The Park Service ought to be charging admission. Long may he continue to astonish us."

-Thomas Pynchon

 

Jim Knipfel

"Knipfel knows how to pull a reader into his orbit. His writing has a hard-boiled magnetism."

-The New York Times                                        Read full review

Jim Knipfel was born in North Dakota in 1965 and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but has spent over half his life in Brooklyn. He began writing quite by accident in 1987 and after determining he had no other verifiable skills, conned his way into almost making a living at it ever since. He is the author of ten books and thousands upon thousands of articles about most anything you like—restaurants, crime, movies, music, politics, art, and most anything else that doesn’t matter. He wrote for newspapers for twenty-five years until someone finally got wise and canned him. Nowadays he writes for assorted websites (and anyone else who’ll pay him), anxiously awaiting the same fate. He is married to a lovely and funny woman much smarter than himself.

 

He’s also blind, which means his other senses have been honed to almost superhuman levels, save for those dulled flat by years of chain smoking, alcohol abuse, and punk rock. He also plays blues piano in his spare time.

 

Oh wait—no he doesn’t.