Ruining it for Everybody

Tarcher/Putnam, 2004

"What makes this book enjoyable is not Knipfel's false opinion of just being "a simple... man with psychological and neurological problems," but rather the author's triumph in the face of often overwhelming health challenges. Witty, irreverent and full of black humor, this is a memoir of a troubled, talented soul who can laugh at himself while refusing to throw in the towel on life."

-Publishers Weekly

 

PLOT:

Knipfel’s third memoir (completing what he refers to as The Trauma Trilogy) focuses on a blind drunken misanthrope’s comfortable acceptance of the utter meaninglessness of life and why he no longer feels compelled to off himself.

 

BACK STORY:

To be blunt, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of a third memoir. Three of them before the age of 40 is just asinine (hence the chosen epigram), but contracts is contracts. Plus it gave me a chance to finally work Morgan, my future wife, into the story as she’d been part of it since before the first book came out. It also gave me a chance to include a bunch of stories which had been cut from Slackjaw, and a few others for which the statute of limitations had finally passed. I don’t know if this is clear or not, but the book ends at the end of August, 2001, a couple weeks before the attacks. That was intentional, as it was something I just didn’t want to get into at the time. I’d save that until later. The last thing anyone needed at the time was any more fucking claptrap about the fucking towers.

 

The soundtrack for this one was provided by the great Dick Dale.