Jacket Weather

"So very real . . . A sad but sweet song about the uncertainty of middle age and how funny it is when time slips away." —Kirkus Reviews
 
"Jacket Weather is a beautiful, evocative account of a late-in-life love sprung into being in early twenty-first-century Manhattan, characters tossed forth from the aftermath of the punk rock seventies. Protagonist Mike spins cryptic, poetic observations of his daily life, strikes random and true chords, pen as Telecaster. His plaintive adoration of June, the love of his life, is painted with enduring mystery and great respect. I loved this book.” —Lee Ranaldo, Sonic Youth, author of Road Movies and jrnls80s


"In this roman à clef—minus the clef—I can clearly hear the music of the NYC streets; feel the L train as it hums; and can smell something cookin'—a modern Moveable Feast." —Clinton Heylin, author of The Double Life of Bob Dylan and From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock

"Mike DeCapite has an eye for deep beauty in the mundane. He writes prose that makes poetry of just walking down the street. What he observes injects a charged current into life’s moments between. Reading Jacket Weather is like listening to the world reveal its secrets." —Robert Gordon, author of It Came from Memphis and Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion

"Mike DeCapite’s books all feel like movies to me. The characters, and the rooms and seasons they inhabit, are clear before my eyes. For example, if anyone should ask me to describe the goings-on at the YMCA, I feel expert on the subject. Not that I’ve ever been in a Y, but from reading DeCapite’s novels and short stories, I’ve spent a good amount of time there. I know the ins and outs of the Ys in Cleveland, San Francisco, and New York City. I know that in these YMCA locker rooms around the country, naked men are standing around talking at length (and quite hilariously) about the preparation of pork cutlets, meatballs, and sauces. The other thing I’ve learned from reading DeCapite’s work is that love is a messy business. As surely as there will be sweaty weight rooms there will be ruined marriages swapped out for doomed romance. The losses are crushing. However, here in Jacket Weather, Mike has finally found June. Sure she’s married but that’s beside the point. In this case, Mike writes about a more matured, lasting love. The love is both for June and New York City. I hope he isn’t jinxing anything." —Kelly Reichardt, director of Wendy and Lucy and First Cow