"[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


Illustration by Russell Christian

Preface by Mike Walsh

Books by Jim Knipfel


Ruining It for Everybody
His third memoir. An anti-spirituality spiritual manifesto.


The Buzzing,
A novel about an aging, embittered journalist who stumbles onto what may be a very big story.


Quitting the Nairobi Trio
A memoir of Jim's 6-month incarceration in a locked Minneapolis psych ward after a suicide attempt. Available at Amazon in hardback or trade paperback.


Slackjaw

Jim's first book. A classic. Can be purchased as a hardback, paperback, or German translation from Amazon.com.

The Mayor of Hostile City -- Cover story about Jim Knipfel that appeared in the June 1, 2000, issue of the Philadelphia City Paper.

From the former editor of the NY Press: "Jim 'Slackjaw' Knipfel suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable, irreversible degenerative eye disease. While considered legally blind now, he can still see enough to hold down a job and read the occasional novelization. He can still also enjoy many delightful shows on the television. His doctors tell him that he will be completely blind in a few short years. Knipfel also has left temporal lobe brain damage (from a severe blow to the head he received in 1985), resulting in the occasional 'rage seizure.' The braces he wore on his legs as a child didn't completely do the trick either, leaving his left foot still a bit twisted. The variety of medications he takes has left him with a liver the size of a football. He has also been diagnosed as clinically depressed, and no one much doubts that he's a drunk. He is also an idiot."


Photo by Morgan Intrieri

Send email to Jim Knipfel

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missionCREEP.com

Welcome to ... Slackjaw Online

This site contains a selection of columns written by Jim Knipfel. Slackjaw originally appeared in the Welcomat (aka the Philadelphia Weekly) from 1987 to 1994. Slackjaw then appeared in the New York Press, where most of the columns presented here were originally published, until 2006. Slackjaw has appeared on various web sites since then. You can see more Slackjaw columns and support Jim Knipfel on his Patreon site.


photo by Debbie Egan-Chin

"Things are bad in this world. Ugly, smelly, nasty--a world full of stupidity and starvation and disease--but things never really get as bad as they should." --Jim Knipfel

Columns

2006
• The Brooklyn From Planet X
• The Gatekeeper
• Avoiding the Draft
• Man in a Cage
• Squelching the Feedback
• My God Smokes Menthols
• Blackboard Landfill
• New Adventures in the Land of Ointments
• Crime-in-Progress
• Taken to the Cleaners
• When Did I Stop Wanting to be President?
• Signs of the Cross
• Stamina
• Two Sides of Stupid
• Timing is Everything
• Wine is the Devil

2005
• Dumb as I Look
• Maybe I Should Worry
• Yes, There's Smoke
• The Deep Gray Anger
• A Depraved Mind’s Twisted Lair

2004
• Earthquakes Without Marjoe
• The Big Guy Has Left the Building
• Battling the Bulge
• Screaming Porch of Horror
• What Winslow Homer Taught Me
• When the Novelty's Gone
• Strangers Near a Train

2001
• American Hardcore
• The Cockroach Theory of Humanity
• Dealing
• Business As Usual
• Cheap Haircuts
• Everyone's a Fireman
• Stolen Images
• We’re Alabammy-Bound!
• What the Blind Really Need
• Where Paranoia Comes From
• Who Am the World’s Foremost Authority? A Lesson from Professor Irwin Corey

2000
• Bill, Book, and Strangulation
• Scared Twisted
• Makin' The Kids Happy
• Security Risk
• Going to Church
• Old Habits
• Blood on the Lawn

1999
• Bad Luck Corner
• When Appliances Attack
• Future Failures of America
• Not Your Jesus Christ
• Creepshow

1998
• Smoke Gets in Your Head
• The Cat in My Hat
• How I Finally Forgave Bart Starr
• A Mind is a Terrible Thing
• Return to Strangeville
• Fate Stuck Out Its Foot: The Struggles of Edgar G. Ulmer

1997
• Old Bar Fightin' Men!
• That Which I Recall is That Which I Regret
• The Wages of Bitter Jealousy
• Ups and Downs. Mostly Downs
• First Night on the Ward
• Every Man for Himself, And--
• Revenge by Proxy is Still Revenge
• Risking My Neck for Nothing That Matters
• That Whole Puppy Burning Thing

1996
• What About the Lesbian Song, Mr. Humperdinck?
• Naught but Doom Awaits the Clever Midgets!
• Gorbachev, The Man Who Should've Ruled the World
• The House That Henry (Miller) Built
• Boxcar Willie: When Hoboes Had Wings
• Autobiography of a Smoke-Filled Room
• How Many Dots Can You Afford to Spare?
• Ed Gein, Werner Herzog and Me
• Maybe It's Something You Thought

1995
• We Didn't Call It "The GooGooMuck" for Nothing
• Surviving Death in a Land Without Condiments
• I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when
• Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas
• People Think I Make This Shit Up: People Are Stupid
• The Fall of the House of Slackjaw
• Alaska: Land of Unspeakable Evil!
• A Few More Degrees of Separation
• Excuse Me While I Talk Myself Out of Something Nice

1994
• Wisconsin Hate Trip
• Beer and Loafing in Atlantic City (and Elsewhere)

1993
• Am I the World's Greatest Ex-Husband or What?
• Coming Home to Hell

1992
• A Trip to the John with John
• God Damn the Sun
• You Cut Out His Brain, You Bloody Baboon!

1991
• A Loving New Year's Message of Hope (But What's That Stink?)
• Don't Mind Him, He's Just My Dad
• Give a Man a Little Time, and Trouble Will Find Him
• Trying to Become a Productive Member of My Own Life
• A Life-and-Death Game of Chicken
• Three Conversations, One Answer: Let the Good Times Blow!
• More Memories of Midnight That Fell Apart at Dawn

1990
• Stripped Bare and Thrown to the Fools
• Home Is Where the Hate Is
• Twiddling My Thumbs at That Last Two-Minute Warning
• Where the Hell's My TV Movie?
• Toasty and Warm, Like a Saddlesore
• When Even the Cheapest Costs Too Much