About the Author

David Gates writes about books and music for Newsweek. He lives in New York City and in a small town upstate.

Reviews

"Mr. Gates has created one of recent literature's most memorable anti-heroes, and...established himself as a novelist of the very first order." —The New York Times

"A brilliant novel. Full of dark truths and biting humor, Jernigan will be read for a long time." —Frederick Exley

"[Has a] jumpy, boozy, post-modern ironic belligerence.... This is a profoundly sorrowful book, one that lingers, unbidden, in the heart." —The New York Times Book Review

"In the best tradition of tragic literature, Jernigan is cathartic and stimulating.... High moral art." —The Seattle Times

"A sizzler of a novel." —Joseph Heller

"Brilliantly handled.... At once harrowing and hilarious, an artful chronicling of one man's free-fall into an exhilarating, devouring nihilism." —San Francisco Chronicle

Well conceived and well written, this book examines the tragedy of a man whose life epitomizes failure on every level. A victim of circumstances, Peter Jernigan is now emotionally crippled and psychologically impoverished. His already distorted personal relationships, skewed further by a dependency on alcohol, sweep him forward, with horrifying swiftness, into a nightmarish cycle of failure, loss, and spiritual death. Bright but unsuccessful, Jernigan drifts through a bleak life that only becomes worse. He has lost his father and wife in successive accidents and now must deal with the adolescent traumas of his only son. His encounter with the divorced mother of his son's girlfriend promises to lighten his life but instead complicates it even further. A disturbing first novel, Jernigan will cause readers, especially men, to shake their complacency and perhaps reevaluate their own circumstances.-- Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.

"Mr. Gates has created one of recent literature's most memorable anti-heroes, and...established himself as a novelist of the very first order." -The New York Times

"A brilliant novel. Full of dark truths and biting humor, Jernigan will be read for a long time." -Frederick Exley

"[Has a] jumpy, boozy, post-modern ironic belligerence.... This is a profoundly sorrowful book, one that lingers, unbidden, in the heart." -The New York Times Book Review

"In the best tradition of tragic literature, Jernigan is cathartic and stimulating.... High moral art." -The Seattle Times

"A sizzler of a novel." -Joseph Heller

"Brilliantly handled.... At once harrowing and hilarious, an artful chronicling of one man's free-fall into an exhilarating, devouring nihilism." -San Francisco Chronicle