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Exit the Rainmaker
The riveting story of college president Jay Carsey, who walked away from his wife, work, family and friends and committed an act that challenges our notion of what is courageous and what is cowardly.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
4 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Coleman
25 books9 followersJonathan Coleman's newest book (which the writer Gay Talese has already praised, well before publication, as "exceptional" and "powerful") is a collaboration with the legendary Jerry West, the silhouetted figure of the NBA logo: WEST BY WEST: My Charmed, Tormented Life, to be published by Little, Brown in October 2011. (In addition, he narrates documentaries--for which he has won two awards--and audio books, and does voiceovers for commercials.)
His previous book, LONG WAY TO GO: Black and White in America, has been called "a classic" (Morris Dees, Southern Poverty Law Center), "history and journalism at its best" (Andrew Hacker, author of Two Nations) and received front-page reviews in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post Book World, and the Chicago Tribune. In addition, Mr. Coleman traveled to 20 cities in the fall of 1997, taking part in symposiums that centered around the book and the subject of race, and he served as an adviser to President Clinton's Initiative on Race as well as an adviser on racial unity to Bill Bradley's presidential campaign. (All of Mr. Coleman's research related to Long Way to Go can be found at the Golda Meir Library of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.)
Mr. Coleman was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1973.
The following year, he worked in London for The New Review, a literary magazine. From 1975 to 1981, he worked in book publishing, first at Alfred A. Knopf and later as a senior editor and member of the editorial board of Simon and Schuster. Among the books he edited were Peter Taylor's In the Miro District, Robert Lindsey's The Falcon and the Snowman, Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel, Don Imus's God's Other Son, David S. Broder's Changing of the Guard, Elizabeth Drew's Senator, William S. Cohen's Roll Call, Jonathan Raban's Old Glory and Arabia, Shiva Naipaul's North of South and Journey to Nowhere, Fred Kaplan's The Wizards of Armageddon, Richard Norton Smith's Thomas E. Dewey and His Times, and Donald Johanson's Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind. In 1980, in a piece about publishing, he was profiled in Time magazine as one of the best editors in the field.
From 1981 to 1983, he worked at CBS News as a producer and a correspondent, and where he initially began to investigate the story that led to his first book, At Mother's Request. Published in 1985, it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and made the New York Times bestseller list in both hardcover and paperback. Favorably compared by the critics to such books as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, it was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. (All of Coleman's research related to At Mother's Request is with the Marriott Library at the University of Utah.) In 1987, a miniseries based on his book aired on CBS, and he made a cameo appearance.
In the fall of 1989, his second work of nonfiction, Exit the Rainmaker, was a featured selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and was praised by Time ("Striking"), The New York Times Book Review ("Fascinating") and The Los Angeles Times Book Review ("A fascinating symbolic statement of the American psyche"). In addition, he wrote a profile of Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Civil Rights Memorial, for Time. In 1990, when Exit the Rainmaker was published in paperback, it became a New York Times bestseller.
In 1991, Coleman wrote a piece on Little League that was subsequently cited for Special Mention in Best American Sports Writing 1992. Over the years his articles have covered a variety of subjects: the world's largest Polaroid camera; the water towers of Manhattan; the mysterious drowning of three black teenagers in Texas on Juneteenth; the way in which technology has made us "intimate strangers"; a small parking problem that John Grisham made a big deal over; profiles of Don Imus, Jeff Sonnenfeld (which answers, among other things, the question of
His previous book, LONG WAY TO GO: Black and White in America, has been called "a classic" (Morris Dees, Southern Poverty Law Center), "history and journalism at its best" (Andrew Hacker, author of Two Nations) and received front-page reviews in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post Book World, and the Chicago Tribune. In addition, Mr. Coleman traveled to 20 cities in the fall of 1997, taking part in symposiums that centered around the book and the subject of race, and he served as an adviser to President Clinton's Initiative on Race as well as an adviser on racial unity to Bill Bradley's presidential campaign. (All of Mr. Coleman's research related to Long Way to Go can be found at the Golda Meir Library of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.)
Mr. Coleman was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1973.
The following year, he worked in London for The New Review, a literary magazine. From 1975 to 1981, he worked in book publishing, first at Alfred A. Knopf and later as a senior editor and member of the editorial board of Simon and Schuster. Among the books he edited were Peter Taylor's In the Miro District, Robert Lindsey's The Falcon and the Snowman, Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel, Don Imus's God's Other Son, David S. Broder's Changing of the Guard, Elizabeth Drew's Senator, William S. Cohen's Roll Call, Jonathan Raban's Old Glory and Arabia, Shiva Naipaul's North of South and Journey to Nowhere, Fred Kaplan's The Wizards of Armageddon, Richard Norton Smith's Thomas E. Dewey and His Times, and Donald Johanson's Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind. In 1980, in a piece about publishing, he was profiled in Time magazine as one of the best editors in the field.
From 1981 to 1983, he worked at CBS News as a producer and a correspondent, and where he initially began to investigate the story that led to his first book, At Mother's Request. Published in 1985, it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and made the New York Times bestseller list in both hardcover and paperback. Favorably compared by the critics to such books as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, it was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. (All of Coleman's research related to At Mother's Request is with the Marriott Library at the University of Utah.) In 1987, a miniseries based on his book aired on CBS, and he made a cameo appearance.
In the fall of 1989, his second work of nonfiction, Exit the Rainmaker, was a featured selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and was praised by Time ("Striking"), The New York Times Book Review ("Fascinating") and The Los Angeles Times Book Review ("A fascinating symbolic statement of the American psyche"). In addition, he wrote a profile of Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Civil Rights Memorial, for Time. In 1990, when Exit the Rainmaker was published in paperback, it became a New York Times bestseller.
In 1991, Coleman wrote a piece on Little League that was subsequently cited for Special Mention in Best American Sports Writing 1992. Over the years his articles have covered a variety of subjects: the world's largest Polaroid camera; the water towers of Manhattan; the mysterious drowning of three black teenagers in Texas on Juneteenth; the way in which technology has made us "intimate strangers"; a small parking problem that John Grisham made a big deal over; profiles of Don Imus, Jeff Sonnenfeld (which answers, among other things, the question of
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 25, 2007
A true story of a college president and a government consultant who one day just walks away from everything, job, wife, friends and disappears leaving a few cryptic notes behind.
The book goes into the events that led up to his taking this drastic step (no crimes, no affairs) and the effect it had on all the people he left behind. It also tells how he built another life for himself that was truer to his real self. The real self that he, rather unfairly I thought, concealed from his wife and friends. How can you punish people for failing to understand you and what you want from life if you never let on what it is you really want. While I had little sympathy for his wife it bothered me when he just walked away and refused to ever explain himself to her.
In spite of it being slow in parts I am finding it interesting because I think that all of us have entertained at least brief thoughts of throwing up our hands and walking away from their real life.
The book goes into the events that led up to his taking this drastic step (no crimes, no affairs) and the effect it had on all the people he left behind. It also tells how he built another life for himself that was truer to his real self. The real self that he, rather unfairly I thought, concealed from his wife and friends. How can you punish people for failing to understand you and what you want from life if you never let on what it is you really want. While I had little sympathy for his wife it bothered me when he just walked away and refused to ever explain himself to her.
In spite of it being slow in parts I am finding it interesting because I think that all of us have entertained at least brief thoughts of throwing up our hands and walking away from their real life.
November 10, 2021
I usually like books that are true accounts, but I found this one tedious and I struggled to finish it. Maybe if I had liked or cared about the characters, I would have rated it higher. I chose it because the cover said 'You won't be able to put it down!" Yeah, that was because the chapters were short and I kept thinking just one more, just one more page and I'm closer to the end.
August 1, 2018
On the book's cover is written You won't be able to put it down. Not only was I able to put it down, I never picked it up again except to put the book in a bag to donate. Simply couldn't get into it despite it being a true story.
May 21, 2022
The story of a college president who completely walks away from a seemingly healthy, normal life and just disappears. This is really a book about psychology, how in order to get along, or get ahead, you can fail to be authentically yourself, and what your consequences for doing that can be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2010
In 1981, Jay Carsey seemed to have it all. He was the president of Charles County Community College in Southern Maryland, he had a beautiful wife, lived in a huge historic home, was a successful consultant, and had a legion of friends and admirers. All of that changed on May 19, 1982 when he drove to National Airport in Washington, D.C., without a word to anyone, bought a ticket, got on a plane, and disappeared. Over the next several days, letters were delivered to his wife and to several close friends that he had mailed from the airport. In one he resigned his job, in others he told his friends that he wasn't coming back, and he told his wife that he had withdrawn $28,000 and was leaving her with their property and, unfortunately, their financial liabilities. The police investigated until they determined that no crimes had been commited and the book focuses on the effect that Jay's disappearance had on all of the people he left behind. The book also follows Jay's eventual reappearance and gradual reconstruction of his life. A particularly interesting book for anyone who is from the D.C. area or anyone who has ever entertained a fantasy about walking away from the life they are living and starting over again somewhere else.
January 7, 2016
I read this a while ago, but it has always stuck with. That's because it was a game changer- a 'my husband went to the store and never came back' kind of thing. The telling is also what captivated me. The search, interviews and documenting is par none excellent. Its the 'Y in the rode that you don't either path offered, but you create your own. It may be non-foction, but reads like a tale untold fiction. Highly recommended.
August 25, 2020
I went into this book thinking it was a True Crime book. I kept waiting for something terrible to happen but that didnt happen either. As a matter of fact, nothing really unusual happens in this book. It is about a man that decides he wants to leave his old life, including a wife but no children, and take up a new identity half way across the country. Maybe the unusual aspect is that he was a well-known person in his old life. I didnt find him or his wife particularly likeable, even though the back cover tells us he was a likeable person and the front cover tells us we wont be able to put the book down, I found neither of these observations to be true.
October 16, 2017
the idea of disappearing for no reason and rediscovering old interests with the lightness of being a beginner again/no expectations under a new identity is v appealing personally. However, the writing was so boring.
March 25, 2019
really not a recommended way to leave one life and take up another. took me a long time to read and i'm not necessarily happy i got around to doing that,
May 12, 2021
Want to re-read this book.
September 8, 2012
It is a true story, a biography of Julian Nance Carsey written by Jonathan Coleman. Who Carsey anyway? Jonathan Coleman worked for CBS News in 1981 to 1983. Carsey was a two-year college president who disappeared May 19, 1982. This biography is really about a no body. Carsey didn’t do anything illegal, he just walked away at the age of 47 from his job, his government consulting and his wife and all his friends. This is not a book I would have chosen to read because I guess, I really don’t care. But it is the book for my face to face book club and I try to read them all. It wasn’t hard to read and the question for me was ‘why did the author write this story?’. While it is a biography it also could be considered a sociology study of why would a man walk away. Does the book answer the question. No, I don’t think so, but Coleman’s investigation is thorough and you can come up with your own conclusions. What I always find interesting is how I can read several books at around the same time that seem to have connections. I just finished Rabbit, Run by Updike last month and while one is fiction and the other a true story, they are about the same thing. I also just finished The Art of Fielding which has less in common but both are stories of a college president.
January 16, 2016
About a man that rouse to prominence with the wave of new community colleges and that truly ran away - dropped everything - and re-invented his life. Well, cruel as it was to his loved ones and family, true accounts as this excite my imagination. Also, an interesting insight into the beginnings of community colleges in America.
May 19, 2008
Julian Carsey, a very wealthy junior college president, "runs" away from his materialistic wife and lifestyle. He ends up in Texas where he starts a new life. This true-crime story really made me think about the meaning of life and family.
September 19, 2009
Not the best writing, but very interesting if you are from the Washington, DC area because it is about the 1982 disappearance of a local person - the president of Charles County Community College.
September 27, 2012
Started off with a bang, but quickly became boring 40 pages or so in. Ultimately, this story is not very interesting, and the writing is mediocre.
December 13, 2014
One strange story: A "successful" guy just takes off. OK, he had some problems, but is there anybody that doesn't? I gave him credit for being a moron, basically.
August 14, 2013
A very interesting book. I still think about it sometimes.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews