American Pie

By John Skow

EXIT THE RAINMAKER

by Jonathan Coleman

Atheneum; 401 pages; $18.95

The strength and weakness of this striking work is that it reads like a crime novel. But its protagonist, Jay Carsey, at age 47 really was president of Charles County Community College in Maryland. And on May 19, 1982, days before commencement, he really did withdraw $28,000 from the bank, drive to the airport, mail several letters, down some vodkas and board a flight. One of the letters was a brief note of resignation. One was a short statement to his wife that he was leaving because he was a "physical and psychological disaster." A postcard, to a close friend who was the college dean, read "Exit the Rainmaker. Good luck. Pls handle." Handle what? The mess? Carsey didn't say.

People disappear all the time, but Carsey was unusual, one of those boyish, likable men that Americans like to elect to public office. He had built his college up from almost nothing, his wife was beautiful, and the two (who had no children) were tirelessly social. People depended on "Uncle Jay."

Was there any substance to this life? Was Carsey a kind of scapegrace hero for clearing out? Good, portentous questions, explored by his former friends. The answers may not quite measure up, and the author uses the novelistic device of the omniscient narrator, leaving the reader uncertain of how evidence was tracked down. But when Carsey turns up tending bar more or less happily in the Southwest, it seems that his problems may have been nothing much more than an empty marriage and heavy drinking. He spoke eloquently by his action, and has little more to say.