Jernigan

This novel is a great exercise in language. Its bleak, unsparing outlook is similar to that of the great Richard Yates. Not to be missed.

This is such a wonderful, wonderful book. It's a perfect mixtures of dark humor and heartbreak. You come to care so much for Peter Jernigan that it hurts you when he's being self-destructive. David Gates is a literary genius!

...This is brilliant and dark but also monstrously funny. A comedy in the way that Lolita and Under the Volcano are comedies. The self-destructive hero is also wise and self-aware; he articulates the politically incorrect thoughts most of us sanitize for public consumption. There's a wonderful scene in which Jernigan and his teenage son's suicidal friend watch It's a Wonderful Life that plays up the darker tones in Capra's classic. Don't read this if you're looking for something "uplifting." If you want an original, self-mocking voice that's rendered without one false note, don't miss it.

Just finished Jernigan and was nothing short of blown away. A modern day Catcher in the Rye, Peter Jernigan tells us his twisted tale from the same padded room where Holden told his. Gates has crafted an important work, which is better than his most recent Preston Falls, because we actually care for the people in this book, despite their chronic alcoholism, atrocious parenting, and undeniable taste for bunny meat. The publisher should be ashamed that this book is out of print!

This book is a true killer. Like a suburban "Heart of Darkness," it suggests what evil lurks in the modern American male... and he continues to get away with it all...Peter Jernigan is a bizarre and somehow totally believable mix of charismatic intellectual and emotional bully. It's probably impossible to read Peter's story and then NOT make attempts to change your own evil ways. In the tradition of "Hunger" by Knut Hamsun, and the better works of John Fante, "Jernigan" has got to be one of the most brutally-honest and lovingly-crafted books one can read. Jernigan is a desperate character, who, sadly, all too many of us can relate to. Gates has a new book out, "Preston Falls," which, while remarkably similar to "Jernigan," is written with the same kind of astonishing clarity. In my opinion, it doesn't get any better than this book.