Jernigan (22)

Jernigan
David Gates
Read 8/20/09

This book is in the same vein as Bukowski. Jernigan’s life continues to slide downhill. His wife dies, his teenaged son is distant. Within his own mind all seems well, but bit by bit his life starts to fall apart. Yet he accepts each small part of it and to him it all seems to make sense. The book has an interesting twist by starting at the ending… so you sort of know what happens, but you don’t know why or how. He gets involved with a woman who at first he loves, but then comes to loath, as she does him. He loses his job, he starts drinking more and more. Things come apart in such an orderly manner, that he barely seems to care. Which might be the most elegant part of this story. People seldom crash and burn, it is usually a slow process, and piece by piece it comes apart.