Book Review

THE MAN IN THE CEILING: AN ARTIST'S FAITH

Jules Feiffer's book, The Man in the Ceiling pretends to be a book for children, but don't let that fool you. Inside this witty book, ostensibly about a boy named Jimmy who wants to draw cartoons despite lack of encouragement from his father and his schoolmates, is a parable about being an artist despite everything.

Jimmy, the young hero of the book, draws comic strips, and Jules Feiffer provides the comics in the book itself, complete with Jimmy's interesting misspellings and unusual fonts and exclamation points. The development of the different comic characters and strips in the course of the book is half the fun; from Jimmy's initial comics in which he and his father (disguised unrecognizably as a daredevil character) fight bad guys and explore distant countries, through his superhero Mini Man, through his collaboration with a more popular kid in class (resulting in Bullet Head cartoons, complete with all kinds of mayhem) through his final cartoon of the Man in the Ceiling. The comics coordinate perfectly with the text; you can entirely believe that Jimmy, a sixth grade kid who dreams of superheroes, has created all these characters and these plots.

Jimmy's family and classmates are as vivid as his comics, and here Feiffer shows a real understanding of the dynamics of families. From Jimmy's mostly uncomprehending father through his vague artist mother to his hot tempered older sister, Lisi, to his adoring younger sister, Susu, the family that surrounds Jimmy and sometimes encourages him and sometimes drives him crazy is a real family, like mine, like most people's families. All right, we don't all have mothers who spend all their time in an attic drawing, and we don't all have uncles who create Broadway musicals, but these are mere details. We all have family members who don't understand us, who believe in us, who think we're crazy, and who keep us from doing what we need to do. Seldom do you see families portrayed as realistically, and as humorously, as Jimmy's family is in this book.

The two most important characters in the book, though, are Charley Beemer, one of Jimmy's classmates, and Jimmy's uncle Lester, who serve (if you want to get metaphorical and heavy about it) as the opposite poles of Jimmy's artistic existence. Charley, the cool kid who all the guys in Jimmy's class want to be like, takes an interest in Jimmy's work, which is initially the equivalent of having God look down on you in front of your peers and tell you that you're doing a good job. The only problem with Charley's approval is that Charley wants Jimmy to work with him on his comic idea, with his characters and his plots. Jimmy tries to do this, but fails.

His Uncle Lester, by contrast, wants nothing from Jimmy. He's long been a fan of Jimmy's work, reading his comics with great interest and gusto. He encourages Jimmy to keep at it, to work at what he loves. Uncle Lester is the family failure, a man who's spent his life writing musicals that never get produced. During the course of the book, however, Uncle Lester comes up with a great musical, which makes it to Broadway. Unfortunately, one of the critics savages the musical and it closes, sending Uncle Lester into a depression and the whole family into a tailspin.

How Jimmy copes with his uncle's fall and his own artistic trials is a story of integrity and delight. I don't ordinarily like books about writing, or movies about movie making or the like (the whole self-referential thing I find annoying), but this is a wonderful exception, a book that is full of energy and humor and heart. I highly recommend it, to adults and children alike.