After the football game, Orville Osentoski, Canton Highs eighteen-year-old center, fell asleep in a locker room toilet stall. The team bus left without him. What happened next would change his life, and the lives of many others, profoundly and irrevocably. The story ponders the question of whether we choose our lives, or if our lives choose us.
The very best novels give us a glimpse into areas of life we may not even have known existed. MacNeil does this brilliantly in Rules of Thumb, a knowing, affectionate, and moving slice of life in a small pocket of Michigans southern peninsula known as the Thumb.
Eccentric characters abound (think Fargo without the blood), and MacNeil knows them well--for all we know, he might be one of them. Either way, theyre irresistible, and youd do well to let this extraordinary debut novel draw you deeply into their world. - Lee Gruenfeld, best-selling author of Halls of Justice and Becoming Holyfield.
About the Author
Jerry MacNeil loves words and making things up. He also loves running, Minnesota summers and fish tacos. Though a city dweller for most of his adult life, MacNeils rural Midwestern roots run deep. Rules of Thumb is set in Michigans bucolic Thumb region. He is currently working on another book, tentatively entitled, The Boy With the Upside-Down Mouth. which also takes place in the Thumb. MacNeil has also written a novel entitled Next Bridge, which should be published later this year. Jerry MacNeil lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his awesome wife, Trudy, and his brilliant son, Ian.
