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A Cartoonist's Memoir
by David Sipress
From a longtime New Yorker staff cartoonist, an evocative family memoir, a love letter to New York City, and a delightful exploration of the origins of creativity - richly interleaved with the author's witty, beloved cartoons.
A wry and brilliantly observed portrait of the budding young cartoonist and his Upper West Side Jewish family in the age of JFK and Sputnik. Sipress, a dreamer and obsessive drawer, goes hazy when it comes to the ceaselessly imparted lessons-on-life from his father, the meticulous, upwardly mobile proprietor of Revere Jewelers, and in the face of the angsty expectations of his migraine-prone mother. With self-deprecation, wit, and artistry, Sipress paints his hapless place in his indelibly dysfunctional family, from the time he was tricked by his unreliable older sister into rocketing his pet turtle out his twelfth-floor bedroom window, to the moment he walks away from a Harvard PhD program in Russian history to begin his journey as a professional cartoonist.
In What's So Funny?—reminiscent of the masterly, humane recall of Roger Angell and the brainy humor of Roz Chast—Sipress's cartoons appear with spot-on precision, inducing delightful Aha moments in answer to the perennial question aimed at cartoonists: Where do you get your ideas?
"An affectionate, introspective memoir from the acclaimed cartoonist...engaging...This addictive, witty, David Sedaris–esque story is a hoot." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"New Yorker cartoonist Sipress draws on his gift for evoking the predicaments of human nature to tell beguiling stories about his life and career...a delightful jaunt through an inspiring artist's mind." - Publishers Weekly
"David Sipress's engaging, illuminating, and hilarious memoir will perhaps clarify what dark forces are at work when it comes to becoming a cartoonist rather than a podiatrist, a billionaire tech mogul, or someone who is deeply into collecting owl figurines. And if it doesn't, you will love it anyway." - Roz Chast, author of Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
"David Sipress, one of the most brilliant cartoonists in the history of the New Yorker, has written a beautiful memoir, equally moving and hilarious. It's like spending time with the funniest and kindest person you've ever met." - Andy Borowitz, New York Times bestselling author of The Borowitz Report
"Cartooning is a serious business, as David Sipress reminds in this engaging and frequently moving memoir. Sipress has not only crafted a winning self-portrait of the artist, he also writes about his complicated family life with deep affection and unsparing honesty. What's So Funny? will make you laugh, and it will break your heart, and it comes with lots of Sipress's cartoons too, which are worth the price of admission in and of themselves." - Tom Perrotta, author of Election and Little Children
This information about What's So Funny? was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
David Sipress has been staff cartoonist since 1998 for the New Yorker, where he has published nearly 700 cartoons. He lectures widely on cartooning, and his autobiographical writing has appeared frequently on newyorker.com.
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