"Knipfel is blessed with a natural, one might even say reflexive, knack for telling stories Aand? displays remarkable elan and some wicked black humor."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times"Jim Knipfel's artistic vision is as stunning as a sunset over the Brooklyn Bridge."--Entertainment WeeklyIn his new memoir, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, Jim Knipfel, the critically acclaimed author of Slackjaw, spends six months in a locked-door psych ward only to find that life can be better on the inside. Thomas Pynchon has called Jim Knipfel's writing "extraordinary." Now Knipfel uses these abilities to remarkably chronicle the time he spent in a Minneapolis psychiatric ward as his own therapeutic counsel.As his account opens, Knipfel has just failed at yet another frenzied suicide attempt and has been picked up by the police. Soon thereafter he is forced to settle into a hospital psychiatric ward waiting until a doctor, whose once-a-week sessions last ten minutes each, deems him mentally fit to be released. Effectively abandoned, Knipfel begins his self-analysis and embarks on a series of haphazard skirmishes to regain his sanity, make new friends, and devise ways to pass the time.Ultimately, a revelation from public television and insights from a fellow patient and the late comic Ernie Kovacs provide Knipfel with a way out, one that only a paranoid, or Knipfel, could appreciate.Quitting the Nairobi Trio is a brazen narrative reminiscent of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. The difference here, however, is that Knipfel enjoyed his life in the "bughouse." Certain to have readers laughing at his caustic wit, Knipfel's memoir will leave some wishing he was still there.