Rasurgam I shall rise again

Rasurgam is a story of loss and reclamation. The story begins at the onset of the economic downturn when Jeff Rider, an executive for a Chicago agency, leaves his job and the next day flies to Boston to watch his daughter receive her doctorate from Harvard. Jeff chronicles how his life spirals downward after the ironic juxtaposition of his job loss and his daughter's moment of glory, until he eventually becomes the lone crew member on a commercial fishing vessel, doing the country's most dangerous work. Jeff's passage from the executive suite to the poop deck, where Jeff is believed to be- "the oldest active longline deckhand in Alaska,"- provides for a high seas ride of humorous anecdotes, as well as serious exchanges, as he and his former high school buddy, Aaron the skipper, reminisce about the past, share thoughts about their current circumstances, and muse about the ship of state's affairs. Fourteen miles out to sea on the Continental Shelf directly west of Sitka, on the precarious waters of the Pacific Ocean, you follow along as Jeff struggles to find equilibrium and to make sense of what's happening at this juncture of his life.