Peter Jernigan, the eponymous narrator, is an alcoholic widower in his late 30s who tells the darkly comic story of his attempts to raise his teenage son Danny in the suburbs of New Jersey in the year following the suicide of his wife.

Reviewing the novel for The New York Times, critic Michiko Kakutani wrote, "The minute he starts talking, Peter Jernigan, the narrator of David Gates's astonishing first novel, grabs you by the lapels and compels you to listen to the sad-funny-tragic story of his life.

"[3] Kirkus Reviews wrote that while "not as wildly lyrical or funny as A Fan's Notes, it's nevertheless a frighteningly believable portrait of a self-created hell.

The author Stuart Evers, in his insightful and passionate foreword to this new edition, claims that it deserves to be rediscovered in a similar fashion to Stoner or Revolutionary Road.

While I agree with that sentiment entirely, Jernigan feels like a more powerful piece of writing than those books, a howl into the abyss, a very modern American rage against the indignities of life and death.