#Netgalley: All The Answers by Michael Kupperman

Title: All The Answers
Author:  Michael Kupperman
Publisher: Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books
Release day: May 15, 2018 - tomorrow!
Rating: 4/5

Summary: In this moving graphic memoir, Eisner Award-winning writer and artist Michael Kupperman traces the life of his reclusive father—the once-world-famous Joel Kupperman, Quiz Kid. That his father is slipping into dementia—seems to embrace it, really—means that the past he would never talk about might be erased forever.
Joel Kupperman became one of the most famous children in America during World War II as one of the young geniuses on the series Quiz Kids. With the uncanny ability to perform complex math problems in his head, Joel endeared himself to audiences across the country and became a national obsession. Following a childhood spent in the public eye, only to then fall victim to the same public’s derision, Joel deliberately spent the remainder of his life removed from the world at large.
With wit and heart, Michael Kupperman presents a fascinating account of mid-century radio and early television history, the pro-Jewish propaganda entertainment used to counteract anti-Semitism, and the early age of modern celebrity culture.
All the Answers is both a powerful father-son story and an engaging portrayal of what identity came to mean at this turning point in American history, and shows how the biggest stages in the world can overcome even the greatest of players.

Review:

It feels weird reviewing someone's experience with their father.

Art/Comic : 

I've never experience Michael Kupperman's art style so it was weird. But it was easy to adjust to after a few pages. It was no longer something foreign but it grows on you.

Quiz Kid:

I never heard of this show before this book. It talks about his fathers experiences in this and things surrounding the show. How it was used as propaganda for the war efforts at the time. About how his dad continued on the show and overstayed his welcome.

His dad felt he needed to be there because that's what the people running the show & his mom acted like. The over staying his welcome caused trauma-- people hated him and attacked him when he went to university.

"Maybe people needed to see and hear Jews, to know that they were actual human beings."

Family Disconnect:

This is about a son who is trying to understand and connect with his father. His father was disconnected from him and life too busy blocking out his past.

While this is discussing his father and his past with a game show. The conversation of having a disconnect and lack of connection inside his family.... hit way too close to home for me.

The need to understand the past to understand the future is the big takeaway from this memoir -- or at least for me it is.

From Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


Recommend?: Yes.