Just Like That,Used

Product Description Les Edgertons buddy novel, JUST LIKE THAT, is based on an actual trip he took with an exprison cellmate under similar circumstances as protagonist Jake Mayes does in this narrative. The scenes in Pendleton are also based on true experiences he had while incarcerated. Approximately 85% of the novel is taken from real life. Jake and his pal Buds journey begins six months after he is released on parole and is occasioned when his girlfriend Donna dumps him and aborts their child. After an aborted suicide attempt where the Norelco shaver cord he used to hang himself broke, on an impulsethe source of the title; everything in Jakes life happens just like thathe calls up Bud, who lives by the same credo, and the two take off with no particular destination in mind. Theyre just going southsomewhere where its warm. An hour before they leave, Jake on another impulse, holds up a convenience store to get some traveling money. Ultimately, they end up in New Orleans and then Lake Charles, Louisiana and from there, back to Indiana. Along the way are many watercooler moments, such as when an inmate sinks a meat cleaver into another inmates blueclad stomach, a physical encounter with two rednecks in Kentucky where Bud shoots one of the men, the bullet bouncing harmlessly off the mans thick skull, Jakes ongoing romance with Donna, the funeral of Jakes father which he attends with a whore, multiple burglaries, armed robberies, a brief affair with a black woman, and an adventure with a drunk Santa Claus. Near the end Jake takes another fall when he is caught burglarizing a bar back in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and gets shot in the leg and is returned to Pendleton where he kills the inmate hed had a nasty encounter during his first stay in prison. In the process, Jakes philosophy of life undergoes a sea change and he comes up with this: Portions of JUST LIKE THAT have previously appeared as short stories in the literary magazines High Plains Literary Review, Murdaland, and Flatmancrooked. The story that appeared in High Plains was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was selected for inclusion in HoughtonMifflins Best American Mystery Stories, 2001. As a note of possible interest, Cathy Johns, the P.R. Director and Assistant Warden of The Farm (the infamous Louisiana state prison at Angola) read this novel and told Edgerton that he'd captured the true spirit of the criminal mind better than anything she'd ever read. About the Author Excon Les Edgerton has thirteen books in print, with several more forthcoming. Since his prison days, he has earned a B.A. from Indiana University and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. His work has been nominated for or won several awards, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award (Short story category), Pushcart Prize, the Violet Crown Book Award, the Texas Institute of Letters Jesse Jones Award and others. A story of his was included in the HoughtonMifflin Best American Mystery Stories 2001. He is EditoratLarge for Noir Nation.