A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears

by Jules Feiffer

A prince who makes everyone laugh is sent on a quest to turn him into a person worthy of being a king, but he gets everything wrong except for the meaning of life.

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Adventure

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Jules Feiffer was an American cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, and author whose work left a significant imprint on American satire and cultural commentary. Emerging from the postwar era of newspaper comics, he first gained recognition through his long-running comic strip published in The Village Voice, where his loose, expressive line drawings and psychologically sharp dialogue captured the anxieties, contradictions, and social performances of contemporary life. Feiffer used humor to critique politics, relationships, and everyday neuroses, developing a voice that felt conversational, self-aware, and deeply engaged with the shifting cultural moods of the United States. His graphic style, which often emphasized gesture and tone over detailed renderings, was equally distinctive, and helped expand the visual vocabulary of editorial and literary cartooning. Beyond his cartoons, Feiffer became an accomplished writer for stage and screen; his play Little Murders offered a darkly comic exploration of violence and alienation in urban America, while his screenplay for Mike Nichols’s film Carnal Knowledge drew widespread attention for its unflinching examination of intimacy and desire. Feiffer also wrote children’s books, including the popular The Phantom Tollbooth, for which he provided the illustrations that helped establish the book’s imaginative visual identity. He demonstrated an enduring commitment to making art accessible, engaging with students and general audiences alike through teaching and public appearances, and continued producing work across multiple genres throughout his life. His comics and writings were often autobiographical in spirit, even when fictionalized, providing commentary on his experiences growing up in New York and moving through decades of cultural change. Feiffer received numerous honors for his contributions to American arts, including major awards recognizing his innovation in cartooning, his influence on graphic storytelling, and his impact on theater and film. His later work included longer-form graphic novels and personal memoirs, reflecting on childhood, family, and the evolution of his artistic voice. Feiffer remained an active and inquisitive creator well into his later years, consistently exploring new creative forms and responding to contemporary political and social issues. His legacy is seen in the work of generations of cartoonists and writers who drew inspiration from his willingness to bring emotional depth, social critique, and literary ambition to comics and satire. Feiffer’s work stands as a testament to the power of humor to illuminate the complexities of human behavior and the cultural forces that shape everyday life.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fondly known to my friends and me as the "Roger Book," this book has quickly become a favorite not only with me, but also with my friends, my family and my sixth grade students. It follows Prince Roger through his quest to find he doesn't know what, he doesn't know where, and he'll only know he has found it when neither of them are laughing. However, even if Roger is not laughing, the reader definitely will be.

This book is a delightfully engaging story which works amazingly well as a read-aloud. When used in the classroom, it provides wonderful opportunities for discussing various elements of story, plot, and figurative language, as well as providing discussion about friendship, love, and life.

[Nathaly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sou suspeita pra falar desse livro, porque acho uma maneira incrível de abordar o crescer. Roger é um príncipe que nunca sofreu. Desconhece lágrimas de tristeza. E aí o rei, seu pai, decide que ele precisa amadurecer pra poder ser levado a sério pelas pessoas do reino.

Daí pra frente é só aventura 🤗 Ótima maneira pra trabalhar a jornada do herói com as crianças. Meus novos alunos adoraram (mas acharam o começo chato hahaha).

[kiwi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reread this book, and then realized that I've never once put it on Goodreads.

Silly Keels.

Anyway, it was delightful as always. Doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest, which is what makes it such a great read to begin with. I always loved the idea of fantasy tales, but have never really gotten addicted to high fantasy like most. Sure, I like specific renditions such as Tolkein's, Edding's, and the like, but the overly serious sorts with the thousands of names and races and peculiarities (and oh-too-similar plot lines) tended to annoy me.

Sometimes a person needs to simply go back and read a simply fantasy book, with magic and wizards and creatures, without the crazy complications, because reading is supposed to be for fun and life lessons.

Not history tests.

[lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing illustrations by Jules Feiffer (illustrator of the iconic Phantom Tollbooth) and interesting characters that break gender stereotypes. Feiffer often steps out of or across traditional narrative boundaries, which would probably blow a child's mind and isn't even done enough in literature (similar to Italo Calvino's "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler"). Fun to read aloud. It could be repetitive or slow for adults at times, but highly recommended for kids!

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another reviewer didn't read it carefully, even though it's short. The women rescue the men more often than not. I'm charmed, and glad I own this. Imo, it stands up well to rereads. Witty, silly, satirical, and heartwarming.

But will children appreciate it? What about this:

"'I'm a peasant... I've never had to make a decision. People like you are supposed to make them for me.'"

I don't know if you can find it in your library, but if so, give it a try.

[Cristina Quattrone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my comfort re-read all through elementary and middle school. It’s taken me years to remember the title and track down a copy…and it was worth it. Weirdly an allegory for every important lesson I’ve had to learn in adulthood.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. We listened to 2/3 of the audiobook and gave up. Too much laughing in the story and not enough by us. It also had a convoluted, slow plot. In other words, BORING!!! Sorry to those who loved it.

[Esther Filbrun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve loved The Phantom Tollbooth for years, so when I saw that those who like that book would likely like this one, I knew I wanted to read this. My chance came when I was looking for the next book to read aloud to my siblings, and I thought of this one. Almost everyone in the family loved it! I agree with Kirkus Reviews when they said it’s “wild and loose”. That’s an apt way to describe this book. I’d also add hilarious, imaginative, wacky (in the best sense of the term possible), and downright delightful to the list of descriptions as well. This book takes all the classic hallmarks of a good fantasy and turns it on its head (in a good way), while at the same time drawing inspiration from a plethora of fairy tales, fables, legends, and suchlike. Add to that the amusing side-notes from the author and the crazy literary devices that pop up frequently, and you might start to get a picture of what this book is about.

Frankly, it’s ridiculous, and probably not all that worthwhile. If you’re the type of person that likes to read books that have some form of reality in them, this is not the book for you. But if you enjoy letting an author take you on a journey sometimes, and stretch the normal bounds of what you would call a good story just a little, I think you’d enjoy it. This is the kind of book that either you’d really enjoy, or you wouldn’t—and for almost everyone in my family, we loved it. Recommended.

[Amy N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was foundational to my childhood. I can't count how many times I read it.

[Kathleen King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Got slow in the middle but kept going and glad I did.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book written and illustrated by the fellow who illustrated The Phantom Tollbooth.

A fun read, which humorously breaks the fourth wall throughout to good effect. Main character goes through growth and transformation in a way that facilitates discussion with children, and the end of the book is poignant without being overly sappy.

Good quick read recommended 11 or 12 year old or older probably.

[Tandava Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got two recommendations and a loan of this book, so I figured it was time to read it. It’s a lot of fun for a quick read, even if it doesn’t have quite the same magic as The Phantom Tollbooth, to which it must inevitably be compared. Tom the Hunter had me in stitches a few times, and I thought the ending was very sweet.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books of all time. When I was little, it always made me laugh out loud so I wanted to be sure I read it to Hattie. It was the first proper book I ever read to her and we started it the day we came home from the hospital. The lessons it teaches touched me even as an adult. I'm sure this is one we'll read many times over. (Started 11.18.11 w/Hattie)

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect children's book, but it will equally touch the hearts of an adult! It makes you laugh and laugh and laugh and the illustrations and choice of words=Hilarious! A riot!

[Mark Surya · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dates are a good guess. I started reading this book one summer when I was maybe six or seven, at my cousin’s place in Vermont—-I never got a chance to finish it, my auntie couldn’t remember later what book I was talking about, it stuck in my head for years—-the first thing I ever engaged that broke the fourth-wall (and a wonderful way to do it), a kind of sorta-picaresque take on Candide and Siddhartha all at once—-you can imagine. I can’t be neutral about it—-finally finishing it all these years later is just miracle after miracle. Everyone, I think, has some lost thing from their childhood that no one else knows that shapes them wonderfully—-it’s more than *nostalgia*.

(I saw “that nobody else knows” as though this book is obscure, but it’s apparently not. I’m saying this because you can’t imagine the years of asking booksellers “it’s like a kids book? By Jules Feiffer?” “Oh! The Phantom Toll—“ “NONOTTHEPHANTOMTOLLBOOTH”). I love Tollbooth too, and without it I don’t think I’d have known Feiffer to recognize, dimly, the style, in my rapidly decrepit late twenties.

But putting all that aside. *Would I read this to my niece or nephew?* Other than perhaps one implicit bodyshaming joke about weight (and even that one was, to my relief, nowhere as bad as I nervously expect older kids books to be—-in lights it’s not bad at all), there’s just a fascinating little metafiction here about a Prince who makes everyone who comes into his radius laugh, and who has to go on a journey of experience. Kind of a kids Candide & Siddhartha. I still like the morals (it’s Feiffer, I fuck with Feiffer), the art is still vivid enough.

The language is the problem. It’s a wonderfully told story with lots of fun in the prose, which I think would make it hard to read convincingly aloud (the kids I know make those muppet critics look like Paula Abdul. Jesus, I am decrepit).

No—-it might be the nostalgia, but this is a *book*, and should be experienced as such in the privacy of reading. It’s a wonder to have on the shelf, and I wouldn’t want to steal the wonder of *finding* it on a shelf from a child. So I guess I just have to strategically place it on certain shelves slightly sticking out to catch them…yes…

Final rating from a perspective of mature objectivity: 30 million bajillion stars.

[Franklin Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

A favorite of mine. So full of charm and wit. The ease at which Feiffer is able to switch between these goofy compelling narratives and inside or “meta” jokes is very impressive.
I remember starting to read this as a kid and finding the idea of the forever forest really cool. I never finished it but i held on to the memory and boy am I glad i finally read it all.
The characters all have these fun effects on people and even though they are odd and could only exist within this story, they are still very real people. The book discusses its character’s feelings of betrayal, grief, depression, anxiety in a way that’s very approachable for a younger audience and very real for anyone who’s struggled with it. There’s a kindness as well to almost all the characters. No one wishes ill will onto one another without cause, and the cause is always the err of humanity, of not knowing or doing the best of ones abilities. Even when it comes to the final confrontation it is not a celebration of conflict. There is hesitation in harm.

i suppose to be harshly critical i dislike that it upholds hierarchy but it’s also just a fairy tale type story and princes and princesses are just short hand for “these are cool people” in children’s books. i generally dislike damsel in distress stories but it does manage to subvert that in many ways making it a damsel in distress story only at a glance, which is quite enjoyable. There is not much to be critical of here. I suppose one might not enjoy the writers interjections of opinion and jokes but it’s incorporated thoroughly throughout, like Tom’s whole character involves his ability to disregard what the author wants (as if the author doesn’t have control over everything).

Conclusion: Good time. Good book.

[Liam Craig McTaggart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I obviously picked up this book because I love Feiffer's illustrations. This really delivered on that front. I was curious if he would take to the genre, in terms of illustration, being notoriously picky about what he will and won't draw. Though maybe he grew out of that a bit since Phantom Tollbooth by this point. It was also a story of his own creation, but I have to assume an author/illustrator generally works as an author and THEN an illustrator. So the problem would essentially still exist. But yes, his drawing style meshed extremely well with the costumes, landscape, and fantastical beings. It's hard to imagine something drawn by Feiffer ever feeling "forced", and this was likewise very natural.

On story, I was worried at first. He's prolific and always fun, but he's also an oddball, and has covered a wide variety of genres etc. I felt like maybe he was trying too hard in the beginning, and maybe that he was entirely making it up as he went along. And he honestly might have done both of those things, but he brought it around. There are some intensely silly concepts brought up in the beginning that don't get old as they're carried throughout the story. And there are also wonderfully accomplished fairytale storytelling elements. People do the impossible simply and believably. Needlessly restrive rules come into play and remain unbroken even as the structure of the world around them change so as to make the rule obsolete. It continually meanders to the end, maybe even more than a fairytale is supposed to, but just meaning that it fits the genre better than anything ever has. It's just a ludicrous string of otherworldly rational things, and it works so well.

[Cynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book and found the line illustrations illustrative 🐴 Okay. The cartoons emphasized what need to be emphasized and movement was well conveyed every time. This is unusual for most other illustrators and very often well done by Feiffer and well done here. I feel better about that description.

Btw, did you catch that? Feiffer engages in metaliterature and that I have engaged in a bit of metacritique.

Becoming a bit more serious now. Feiffer engages in metaliterature, talking so much about a quest while describing a quest. Just when I think he should name the The Odyssey as an adventure-quest of returning home. I am wondering why he named the The Iliad a war epic. I can see how the Odyssey can be stretch to describe what is happening in A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears, yet I would have preferred Feiffer named the Odyssey. I can see that I need to go back to the library, reread the book, and report back. Soon.

Every time I think I have an understanding this story and am ready to write a review, I find that my understanding changes. I will re-read to find an answer to my Illiad question. I suspect I will develop new understandings again. I suspect his is the allure other reviewers find in this book.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another of Feiffer's children's books, and it's a delight. Roger is a prince, and he's never had to do anything or decide anything in his life. So he's sent on a quest, to gain experience, to become a man. Feiffer's clearly inspired by friend Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, as this book's filled with playful language and whimsical humor (even a metatextual joke about the sloppy art in Tollbooth!) The characters are crafted some solid archetypes, but always given a surprising twist. Highly recommended.

[Topher · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my childhood favorites—delightfully silly! This book has always stuck with me as one of the two books that introduced me to breaking the fourth wall and other metafiction techniques. ("The Stinky Cheese Man" is the other.) Upon rereading, I'm also tickled by how well the illustrations complement the writing. Jules Feiffer, whom most will recognize as the illustrator of "The Phantom Tollbooth," is in top form here using his loose and doodly style to portray all manner of wonderfully expressive postures.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightfully farcical and cleverly contrived, I found the absurdities of each character and plot twist to layer richness and depth to this wonderful tale. Things such as King Whatchamacallit's jumbled phraseology are thoroughly enjoyable, but the author was wise in keeping it limited to sparing doses. The simple means used to escape the Forever Forest that no one would ever expect is another example of the creativity of the author.

[Adeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a fun blast from the past.

the story in and of itself is somewhat unorthodox, but the voice of the narrator takes it to the next level. even with all of the silliness this book brings to the table, it still has moments that are heartfelt in a special way.

I’m very glad I re-read this book.

[Maira · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has got to be one of my favorite childhood books. I've read it dozens of times, and it never fails to make me howl with laughter. It's surprisingly adult, cleverly written and it has morale that appeals to young readers. I recommend this to every pre-teen - and, not surprisingly at all, it keeps pleasing audiences.

[Lorene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm hard pressed to call this a children's book since it's so hilarious to an adult, but that's what it's supposed to be. If you have a somewhat advanced child of age 8+ with a well-developed sense of humor, she'll get it. If not, read it for yourself. It's inventive and clever, and I loved it. With life as it is today, we can all use a laugh!

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A review on the back cover says, “for certain people, I think it may become a special, personal book - they’ll take it along when they go to college and resort to it as comfort reading. As adults, they’ll share it with best friends and children. Not a bad fate for a book.”

Well, I’m certain people. This book blew my mind in elementary school and was delightful to read again.

[Andrew Arndorfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's certainly a children's book, but wow if it hasn't stuck with me. A beautiful story that is so incredibly engaging in part due to it's unique storytelling and subversion of literary norms. I remember reading this as a kid and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. I feel lucky to know about it, thank you to whoever ran the Battle of the Books program in third grade.

[Hannah]

This was my boyfriend's favorite book from childhood, and I've been swearing I would read it for years. Now I finally have! The book was silly and sweet, just like him. I feel like it explains a lot about his sense of humor.

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny fantasy quest book for children and adults alike. In fact, middle school me would probably have given it five stars. The author (and illustrator) of this book also illustrated The Phantom Tollbooth. The book breaks the Fourth Wall and occasionally uses anachronistic phrases and mentions anachronistic objects to make it even more enjoyable.

[Raz Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved reading this. Full of unique world building and lore, it felt like Jules wrote it with ease, as if he was a recalling a journey he took himself. And maybe, in a way, it’s the mind of journey we all take.

[Timothy Yim-Stueve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shoutout to my homeboy Ellie for sending me this book. It was a good time. Loved the formal playfulness. And the lady who has to cover her face because she is so beautiful leads me to think that this is indeed Inifinite Jest for the kids.