Exit the Rainmaker

The story of a well-known college president in Southern Maryland, who left his wife, work, and friends to commit what some would regard as a courageous--others as outrageous--act

In 1982 Jay Carsey, age 47, president of a community college in Maryland, vanished, walking away not only from his job and 14-year marriage but from a seemingly enviable life. He left behind a couple of letters that offered no real explanation for his action. In a book as spellbinding as a first-rate whodunit, the author of At Mother's Request seeks reasons for this mystifying behavior. Carsey emerges as an alcoholic manipulator, trapped in a puffed-up self-image as father-figure and humanitarian, and plagued by deep-rooted feelings of fraudulence. We learn of traumas in Carsey's Texas boyhood, his entry into Maryland's nouveau riche society, the hollowness at the core of his outwardly near-perfect marriage. Coleman relates how Carsey planned his escape, and traces his moves during his new existence. Equally engrossing are Carsey's own Pirandellian interpretation of the flight and accounts by others in the drama, revealed after Carsey's cover was blown and the case became national news. The book, with its implication that the "fantasy of wanting out" is not uncommon, is disquieting. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; BOMC featured alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Jay Carsey appeared to be a successful president at a southern Maryland college, with a devoted wife and admiring colleagues, when he suddenly disappeared. Carsey made a new, low-scale life for himself in Texas, while those left behind struggled to come to grips with their incredulity at his abandonment and the resultant change in their lives. The author delves into Carsey's background and his relationship with his wife and friends, discussing why he might have taken such drastic action to escape the pressures of his life. Lacking the high drama of Coleman's best-selling At Mother's Request ( LJ 7/85), the story is nonetheless fascinating, perhaps because it appeals to that small part in many of us that would like to follow Carsey's example. Public libraries can expect some demand for this. BOMC alternate.
- Anne Twitchell, EPA Headquarters Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.