Revenge of the Latchkey Kids: An Illustrated Guide to Surviving the 90's and Beyond - Softcover

Rall, Ted

3.9

50 ratings by Goodreads

9780761107453: Revenge of the Latchkey Kids: An Illustrated Guide to Surviving the 90's and Beyond

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761107452 ISBN 13: 9780761107453

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company, 1998

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Angry, unappeasable, and funny as hell, Ted Rall is a mind to pay attention to, a one-on-one freelance revolutionary who sees through the hyperbole and hypocrisies of our society with a clear and unflinching eye. Syndicated as both a cartoonist and columnist through Universal Press Syndicate, he reaches more than 100 papers and magazines, and his most recent graphic novel, The Worst Thing I've Ever Done, won a Firecracker Alternative Book Award.

Formerly titled Kill Your Parents Before They Kill You, Revenge of the Latchkey Kids is an illustrated manifesto for surviving the 90s and beyond, with 24 chapters of edgy insight, personal histories, advice, and cartoons. It is, in the words of Jules Feiffer, "a spicy stew of high-handed judgments-part drawing, part essay, part memoir-confession, part tantrum. The text is the thing. Funny, fractious here and there, nasty now and then, brilliant." Among topics on Ted's mind are "College Is for Suckers," "Gen Xploitation," "Making the Most of Your Dead-End Job," "Relationship Tips for the Sexless," and, in a rallying cry only a true subversive could love, "Bring On the Stock Market Crash." Bring on Ted Rall.

Introduction by Jules Fieffer.

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Review:

Ted Rall is pissed off. He has issues. He will never succeed with such a bad attitude--or maybe he already has. Revenge of the Latchkey Kids distills Rall's vast torrent of negative emotions into a passionate litany of what's screwed up in America today. If you're a Gen-Xer who suffered through the parental experiments of the 1970s, or ever slaved for meager pay and no benefits as a temp, or wondered when you'd ever pay off your student loans, Rall will hit a nerve. And then hit it again. And keep hitting it.

It would be simple to dismiss Rall as a whiner if he weren't so right all the time. Furthermore, at the risk of sounding like one of his cartoons, Rall performs a vital social function: he presents a point of view other than that of the demographic 800-pound gorilla, the baby boomer. Rall has no pity for that generation, which he sees as self-indulgent, hypocritical, and well, evil. But the cartoonist is an evenhanded demonizer: Gen-X fares little better; it's clear Rall has no illusions as to what nightmares would ensue if he and his compatriots ran things.

Revenge of the Latchkey Kids is a howl of anger--in perfect pitch. Ted Rall serves up an opinion you won't get anywhere else. Get some before he gives up.

From the Back Cover:

Rall's work is a wacky Rorschach blot of the American character-or lack of it.

(Publisher's Weekly)

"Ted Rall makes me laugh out loud." (Matt Groening)

"Rall is a stark lens on real life." (San Francisco Examiner)

"A hero of the counterculture" (The Economist)

"Ted Rall truly understands evil." (Philadelphia Daily News)

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