Al Jaffe's Mad Life - A Biography by Mary-Lou Weisman, with illustrations by Al Jaffe (It Books/Harper Collins) published in hardcover, September 2010
Reviewed by Brent Sanders
Jaffe, who defined the Mad Magazine aesthetic as much as any artist or writer this side of Don Martin (I mean he did invent the trademark "fold-in," after all) has allowed his friend Mary-Lou Weisman to write his biography. And, it is an eye-opener, revealing, and, at times, downright heart-breaking.
First of all, there is relatively little furshlugginer humor here, few rib-tickling stories about what it is like to work for Mad. Nor is there a trove of anecdotes or revealing information about the men Jaffe worked (and played) with, ground-breaking cartoonists like his high school buddies Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman. But that shouldn't scare one off, as the book tells a sad but wonderful and ultimately inspiring story.
The bulk of the book is focused on Jaffe's rather troubled childhood and adolescence, in which his mother rounded up he and his brothers, twice, and left America to go back to her native Lithuania, in the face of rising anti-Semitic sentiment (Jaffe is Jewish). It is almost harrowing to read, the four brothers being forced to adapt to what could easily be considered abusive parental behavior. But the way they keep finding fun and joy in the face of such adversity, and their ability to escape to the funny pages that ultimately gave Jaffe his life path, makes for a read more uplifting than one might think.
Also, there are only a couple photographs in the book, but dozens of illustrations by Jaffe, all of which depict his experiences. They add to the gentle hopefulness the story encourages. This is not the book I thought it would be, but I came away from it feeling grateful to have read it.
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Brent Sanders previously reviewed Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original here.
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