The more time I spent reading âExit the Rainmakerâ, the more intensely I came to dislike its main character, college president Julian Nance Carsey, who in 1982 walked away from a life many would have envied.
Author Jonathan Coleman's attempts to make sense of this true story and to transmit to the reader a true understanding of what prompted Carsey wallows along for almost 400 pages, and is bloated with a cast of characters who thought they knew the successful and popular âUncle Jayâ.
It all boils down, apparently, to the fact that Carsey, after breaking up the first marriage of the woman who became his wife, tired of her and her ambitions for him, and rather than standing up and saying âI want a divorceâ, chose instead to simply leave for work one morning and never return. The first section of the book concentrates on the early search for the missing administrator and on determining whether he had met with foul play or, contrarily, if he had been guilty of some crime and had fled to avoid discovery. When neither of these scenarios proves true, one can only fall back on the reality that he walked away in some Huckleberry Finn odyssey to find âfreedomâ, regardless of the confidences betrayed and relationships shattered in so doing.
This reader never came to an acceptance that Carsey was emotionally and psychologically running for his life; only that he was tired of being a grown-up and turned his considerable intelligence into an elaborate plan to become a perpetual adolescent.
Author Jonathan Coleman's attempts to make sense of this true story and to transmit to the reader a true understanding of what prompted Carsey wallows along for almost 400 pages, and is bloated with a cast of characters who thought they knew the successful and popular âUncle Jayâ.
It all boils down, apparently, to the fact that Carsey, after breaking up the first marriage of the woman who became his wife, tired of her and her ambitions for him, and rather than standing up and saying âI want a divorceâ, chose instead to simply leave for work one morning and never return. The first section of the book concentrates on the early search for the missing administrator and on determining whether he had met with foul play or, contrarily, if he had been guilty of some crime and had fled to avoid discovery. When neither of these scenarios proves true, one can only fall back on the reality that he walked away in some Huckleberry Finn odyssey to find âfreedomâ, regardless of the confidences betrayed and relationships shattered in so doing.
This reader never came to an acceptance that Carsey was emotionally and psychologically running for his life; only that he was tired of being a grown-up and turned his considerable intelligence into an elaborate plan to become a perpetual adolescent.
Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
