Enjoyable book - the true life story of a quadriplegic reformed drunk

Excellent | Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot | John Callahan

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	• Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot John Callahan Vintage, 1990 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Must Read!

John Callahan is my favorite crippled cartoonist! He's honest and hilarious! I've been a fan for years and have most of his cartoon books. I'm glad I added this to my collection!

Enjoyable book - the true life story of a quadriplegic reformed drunk

John Callahan tells a funny and honest story about a man who put himself into a wheelchair (drunk driving) and then continued to drink for years after he became a quadriplegic. His story of personal redemption is a hilarious and thoughtful ride that is well worth reading.

Excellent

Callahan is where it's at. Wonderful story of strength, grit, perserversance, and recovery. Of course the belly laughs along the way were fun also. Some of those cartoons ! Geez, Calahan, thanks. P.S. Write another story about you. Sharon L.

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"relatively" good

Full disclosure: My brother is married to John's sister. I recommend this book to all of my friends who have never heard of John. How can anyone say anything against a book that is both pornographic and inspirational at the same time?

Everyone is Drunk and Crazy

I've read a fair number of stories about substance abuse by people both unknown and famous (rock star biographies are nothing if not diaries of substance abuse), and I gotta hand it to Callahan: I have never encountered more addicts of every stripe and variety than on the pages of his autobiography, "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot." His assistants, friends, helpers, caseworkers- all drunks and junkies, the whole lot of them. Kudos to the cartoonist for escaping that poisonous environment and getting sober, particularly in view of a tragically gained quadriplegia that is a greater justification for drinking than most.

Don't Worry is a hard-core, politically incorrect, and unsympathetic look at disability and substance abuse. It's a no frills presentation, just like Callahan's artwork; it cuts to the message, without flowery language or pretentious literary devices. Callahan has a casual, down-homey style that makes this a quick and easy read, in spite of the heavy subject matter. He exhibits very little self-pity, and instead clinically and factually recounts even his most personal travails (with government funding, changing his waste bag, intimacy with women, etc.), injecting his caustic wit and black humor. He recognizes his injury as due to drinking (as well as the converse), but doesn't spend a lot of pages searching for deeper meanings. I was curious about what he thought made him a big drinker in the first place (i.e., before the accident)- was it boredom and the freedom of the 70s, or deeply held fears of abandonment due to his adoption and inability to meet his birth parents?

This book was written in 1989, when Callahan was 38. Looking back at some of the achievements he's had by now (his own cartoon TV show, more extensive circulation of his comics, screen rights to Don't Worry purchased by Robin Williams), it's clear he was on the cusp of success when he wrote his autobiography. It's a cool perspective to read about now, particularly in light of how Callahan details his struggles trying to eke out a living in the cartoon world. His professional accomplishments and development of a fan base are hard fought and well deserved.

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Is it possible to find humor -- corrosive, taboo-shattering, laugh-till-you-cry humor -- in the story of a 38-year-old- cartoonist who's both a quadriplegic and a recovering alcoholic? The answer is yes, if the cartoonist is John Callahan -- whose infamous work has graced the pages of Omni, Penthouse, and The New Yorker -- and if he's telling it in his own words and pictures. But Callahan's uncensored account of his troubled -- and sometimes impossible -- life is also genuinely inspiring. Without self-pity or self-righteousness, this liberating book tells us how a quadriplegic with a healthy libido has sex, what it's like to live in the exitless maze of the welfare system, where a cartoonist finds his comedy, and how a man with no reason to believe in anything discovers his own brand of faith.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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