These Children Who Come at You with Knives, and Other Fairy Tales: Stories—Jim Knipfel

Everything you need to know about Jim Knipfel is right there on the last page of his latest book: “Jim Knipfel lives in Brooklyn, where he is not welcome in family-friendly establishments.” Knipfel’s collection of short stories, These Children Who Come at You With Knives, goes a long way toward explaining why.

For a child of the ’70s who grew up on the Twisted Fairy Tales that were the highlight of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, this compendium of cracked morality tales reads like a lost season had the cartoon been moved to late night cable and been written by Rod Serling, Jim Thompson, and Hubert Selby, Jr.

Although there isn’t any redemption to be found in these fairy tales, those looking for nuggets of good advice could easily mine this book for gold: 


1. Don’t trust princesses.

2. Don’t piss off a gnome.

3. Plants ain’t no good. (As we learn in the cleverly titled, Plants Ain’t No Good.)

4. Don’t let talking horses buy firearms (or frequent hookers).

5. No, seriously, don’t piss off a gnome.

Simon & Schuster

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