Jonathan Coleman

The more time I spent reading “Exit the Rainmaker”, 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 “Uncle Jay”.

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 “I want a divorce”, 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 “freedom”, 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.… (meer)

This is another book I bought through amazon UK while I was buying some books for my dad for father's day.
No idea why I picked this one. Probably because it was on my amazon.com wish list.

The way I add books to that list is mostly based on reviews although nowadays you cannot trust 5 star ratings anymore, and on my fellow true crime readers,here on goodreads but also the ones on amazon like Dan Bogaty or Kim.

This is a huge paperback and I read the first 2 pages to check if I liked the writing style and yes I do.

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Update: In the beginning of this book You get to know Franklin Bradshaw and his wife Berenice. I thought they were a very interesting pair to say the least.
Then we got to know the children a bit more and only then it dawned on me. Francis (their youngest daughter) married someone and became Francis Schreuder and I knew I had already read a very good book about her and her sons. To be fair I was not happy when i realized it cause I remembered quite a lot and was really enjoying this book so far but when it brought me on familiar territory I was not sure if I wanted to continue because i already knew the case.

Well I did and the writing is excellent.I am not sure which of the 2 books I would recommend.The other book is called Nutcracker by Shana Alexander.
[b:Nutcracker: Money, Madness, Murder: A Family Album|1405390|Nutcracker Money, Madness, Murder A Family Album|Shana Alexander|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353970210s/1405390.jpg|1395627]

Looking at my review I now see why this book by mister Coleman was on my wish list. I wanted to know more about this case and well this book helped a lot.

What a crazy family and to be honest, they did remind me quite a lot about my own family alas. Lot of talking behind backs by mum about her children.

To all my tc friends. Buy this book. If you are in America you get it for so cheap and when you are in Europe it is still not expensive cause you can buy the book for 50 cents. he shipping costs are expensive but it is worth it. So well written and what an intriguing, crazy but interesting family.

It is huge though, My paperback has 670 pages oh and it also contains notes so 5 star rating!


… (meer)