NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, Sunday, October 29, 2002

BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
By Jules Feiffer
Michael di Capua / Hyperion; all ages

For years Jules Feiffer's hilarious stock in trade has been ''what if'': what if a thought, be it ever so small, is spun out to its logical conclusion? He is our Kant, and as he spins, we follow. In ''By the Side of the Road,'' a dark comedy, his subject is domestic road rage, or what can happen inside the caldron of the family car, a fitting topic for the summer holidays or any season, really, and his point of departure is that timeworn threat: IF YOU DON'T STOP THAT NOW YOU'LL END UP ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!Yes, well. But here, the child -- a boy of 8 or so -- does. And stays there. Overnight. And the next night too, and the next. His parents do return, bringing sandwiches and a blanket. But after a while, quite soon in fact, after days full of sunshine and lovely starry nights, the boy likes it. He builds a cave house. His parents visit. He grows. A girl, another denizen of the Side of the Road, joins forces with him. His household becomes more elaborate. Finally his parents, elderly now, join him. His brother, who has been brought up at home and has been madly jealous for years, sets up a similar establishment on the West Coast. They visit, back and forth, taking long road trips. Hmmmm. Back to the drawing board. The spun-out thread isn't a long line after all but a lasso, an ellipse. While this book, according to its publisher, is for children, it's really, instead, for parents (or teenagers, who may get the joke and love the beginning but loathe the ending). But that hardly matters: Feiffer is an artist and a philosopher, and he's in top form here. He's written a parable about exile and redemption, without once taking his hand from the steering wheel. --Cynthia Zarin