What's So Funny?: A Cartoonist's Memoir

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? 

• A Dysfunctional Family Portrait: From a migraine-prone mother and a meticulous jeweler father to an unreliable older sister who helps rocket the family turtle out a twelfth-floor window.
• From Harvard to The New Yorker: Follow Sipress’s journey as he walks away from a Harvard PhD program in Russian history to pursue his dream of becoming a professional cartoonist for America’s most celebrated magazine.
• A Father-Son Story: Navigate the complex, funny, and poignant relationship with a father who imparts ceaseless lessons on life, love, and the meaning of money from behind the counter of his jewelry shop.
• Mid-Century New York: A vivid love letter to an Upper West Side childhood in the age of JFK and Sputnik, filled with the sights, sounds, and anxieties of a bygone era in New York City.