Tantrum

by Jules Feiffer

Book Overview

Cartoonist, screenwriter and playwright Jules Feiffer's long out-of-print classic, "Tantrum", returns in this Fantagraphic edition, featuring new covers by Feiffer and an introduction by acclaimed Sandman creator Neil Gaiman. The story of suburban disenchantment, "Tantrum" is the story of respectable and responsible businessman, Leo Quog, who, in the throes of a mid-life crisis, willfully regresses to the age of two. Having been two before, Leo demands...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394508378
• ISBN13: 9780394508375
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 183 Pages
• Weight: 1.78 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The yearnings of nearly all adults summarized in cartoons that are funny but bitingly accurate

The premise of this book is one that nearly all adults can relate to. Leo is a man with a wife and two teenage children who is in a rut, feeling that his life has no mystery and he is suffering from depression. His children are self-centered and his wife is sympathetic, but mouths platitudes rather than engaging in real conversation. Finally, Leo reaches the point where he screams "Mommy!" several times, which transforms him into a person with the body of a two-year old but retaining his adult mind. At first he thinks this is great, he is once again small enough to be held and be carried piggy back. However, he quickly finds that the world does not react in the ways that he would like. His wife, children, siblings and parents all reject him, so he makes connections with other adults that have made the same type of "escape" that he has. They prove to be too self-centered for his tastes, so he travels to Palm Springs to visit Joyce, a woman he remembers as being buxom and sensual. When he arrives, Joyce is in a bikini but following a fad diet that has her down to less than 85 pounds. Of course, those mammoth breasts are now nothing but a memory. Leo manages to convince Joyce to end her diet, but he cannot handle the responsibility. He eventually leaves himself in a basket at the door of Ms. Swallow and she begins treating him like a baby. Life is bliss until they take a bath together. Once she begins washing his genitals, disaster ensues. Leo once again becomes a man and runs swinging from the bathtub. He returns to his family to find his children are happy to see him again but his wife resents his experiences. Expressed in cartoon form, this book describes the thoughts of most adults. The responsibilities of earning a living, handling children and the needs of a spouse, and doing the same things day after day make nearly everyone yearn for simpler times. Nothing could be simpler than the basic pleasures of a child who wants their stomach rubbed and to be carried around. Feiffer has used his cartoon genius to express desires that nearly everyone has in a way that is funny, yet bitingly accurate.

A darkly humorous look at a man who regresses to infancy.

In Tantrum, a middle-aged man grows tired of the pressure of his life and spontaneously rejuvenates into a two-year-old. Feiffer gives a humorous but sometimes uneven look at the misadventures that follow. Some of the story is realistic (eg., the man's family take the infant to a doctor, who proclaims that "this is a normal, healthy two-year-old" and chastises the family for wasting his time), while other parts are fantastic (the man-infant, out on his own [?] happens into a convention of other regressed adults and has to pretend he is a simple two-year-old to escape them). Some of the book does not bear close scrutiny -- such as why a person who looked and dressed like a baby would be allowed to travel freely like an adult -- but is overall an enjoyable and thought-provoking work.