Reason for Leaving: Job Stories A Novel

In the last column of a job application, there’s that tricky question: Reason for Leaving.  John Manderino has apparently had to puzzle over that one often and long.  His answers are collected here in this hilarious novel-in-stories tracing the history of a guy trying to grow up job by job. Delivery boy, altar boy, busboy, teacher, cotton picker, umpire, Zen monk–Manderino’s protagonist tries on one hat after another, from Chicago to Arizona to a South Dakota reservation where he longs to be given an Indian name, “something like Many Roads, or Many Jobs.” A funny, moving portrait of a man’s journey of becoming. But becoming what? The answer lies behind all the reasons for leaving.